I'm in the mood for turning some things upside down today. Why not?

This issue:

• get inspiration from some innovative products and services I've discovered
• let me brag about recent results from conference and in-house workshops
• be challenged to create a new policy in your office which is guaranteed to improve creativity.
  

I've seen some great ideas that have had me saying aloud: 'wow - wish I'd thought of that!'

At Borders - in the CD section - take any CD to the headphone station and scan the barcode to listen to the CD! There are 40,000 titles digitally stored with only an occassional missing song. I found an article by The Age which describes how it's done if you'd like more info.

At a tram stop in Victoria Street, Richmond in Melbourne - Tram Tracker. Simply txt your tram stop number to 199YARRA and you'll get a reply with the tram's real-time arrival at your stop. Visit Yarra Trams for more info.

At a car park in Sydney (Westfield, Chatswood) - Park Assist. I drove my car in and noticed an electronic sign '43 spaces available'. I wondered how it could be so accurate and thought I'd take my chances. Once I was heading down the first aisle, another sign appeared, informing me there were 20 spaces ahead and 23 spaces to the right. I went right. Another sign - this time telling me there were 15 spaces ahead and 8 spaces to the left. As I turned left, I noticed every single parking space had a sensor in the ceiling above it. And a green light if the spot was empty, red if it was occupied! Clever!!.

Recently we've had great fun travelling around the country speaking at conferences and doing in-house corporate workshops. How do they work? We introduce short, snappy techniques for generating ideas, then try them out on existing business challenges. One of the things that makes our workshops unique is the Idea Evaluation Matrix which easily narrows down the ideas to find the top 3.

• At National Australia Bank, 43 people generated 129 ideas in 2hrs to solve 3 live business challenges.
• At Triple M, 12 people generated 57 ideas in 50 minutes to improve an annual client event.
• With Microsoft, 5 people generated 12 ideas in 10 minutes to make an upcoming Student day more memorable
• For Hallmark, a room full of newsagents generated over 60 ideas in 20 minutes to solve the challenge: How can we encourage our staff to cross-sell?
• For REIV, 180 people generated over 80 ideas in 20 minutes to solve this challenge: How can we be smarter about staff retention?

A quick tip for brainstorms: To ensure everyone gets a 'voice', instruct participants to write their ideas on index cards then throw the cards onto the table. Everyone picks a card, reads the idea (to themselves) and builds on it, writing their addition to the card.

How long could your team go without saying the word BUT? Yes, with just one 'T'.. the other one is not my area! That simple word -but - can be a total creativity crusher.

Someone in your office says 'Hey, I've come up with a great idea to get around this problem of decreasing the complaints to our call centre.. check it out - ' and they continue to explain their new idea. You come back with: 'Yeah, but.....'. Can you imagine what it's like for that other person? Your but has invalidated their idea, and stamped YOUR idea down instead.

Challenge your team to rule out the word BUT for a whole day, then go for 2 days.. and how about a week? Every time someone says but, the person who received the but marks them down on a chart. The first one to 10 buts has to bring in cupcakes for everyone the next day. Or something that hurts the hip pocket even more.

Hope you had a great weekend and welcome to the Ideas Culture newsletter! (Remember I'm doing things upside down today.. just to poke you in the eye a little bit!

For more about our workshops and keynotes, visit the Ideas Culture website or phone 1300 734 904.

We love hearing from you, please keep ‘em coming! Email us anytime: enquiries@ideasculture.com

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		Here’s a challenge for you – ask the next person you meet - WHOEVER it is - 'where was the last place you went out to eat?'. Then, before the week is over, either go THERE or eat the same type of food.
BECAUSE – an idea is the connection of two seemingly unrelated facts. Fill your brain with new facts and you’re much more likely to pop with a new idea.