Where Do Ideas Come From?

As I sat down to think about this, I recalled being sent home from the second grade for “daydreaming.” As it turned out, daydreaming is one of the most important ways to come up with ideas.

Why even muse about where ideas originate? Because we are in the business of selling ideas, and that’s where we need to be. If we think we’re in the business of selling things, that’s a problem because things are commodities and ideas are not. Ideas have value.

One of the great ideas in recent memory was Apple’s Think Different. They weren’t the first to say that; it was in play way before they ever used it. But one of the paths to creating ideas is borrowing them and then reforming, regurgitating, comparing, and combining. That’s how Apple and Chiat came up with Think Different, which was one of the most successful campaigns that Apple has ever done.

So, where are ideas hatched? Anywhere and everywhere. They come from intuition. From sights, sounds, smells, and texture. From going for a walk or listening to a lecture. From observations of pets, from unexpected encounters, and from seeing things that are entirely out of character when you’re shopping.

They’re often the proverbial whack on the side of the head from an unexpected direction—like the daydreaming that gets you sent home from school in the second grade.

Can you create the conditions that nurture your ability to come up with terrific ideas? I think so. Of the two major influences, the more critical is having a thirsty mind and a level of curiosity that’s almost nerd-like. The more you know about it, the more open your thinking is, the more fertile the ground is for ideas to germinate.

The other significant influence is your immediate surroundings. Things like the color of your walls, your floor, what’s on them, and what’s on your desk. Something like what’s available to you to loosen up your mind and possibly see some new paths to explore. For example, I have a box full of children’s toys that I often break out in brainstorming sessions. People always fiddle with one or two of them, and the momentary physical distraction seems to trigger new lines of thinking that lead toward new ideas.

Many people in the creative services business have a fancy process name and a set of acronyms to describe how they work. In the end, though, they all boil down to the same thing: formulating a set of plans designed to get to the proverbial big idea.

I don’t have a fancy process or acronym for this. What I do have are some habits and approaches that create the conditions where ideas can bloom — it’s where I do my best work.

Next up: How to Get Ideas Rolling