About CrisisBrainstorm
In 1998 I inherited the phone number of a
private investigator. Suddenly I was receiving calls from
upset individuals who felt they needed surveillance
services. I realized mostly they needed someone to listen,
someone to offer them alternative ideas to try. None really
wanted to pay up to $20,000 for PI services. In fact, none
was willing to pay me for up to an hour of my time that I
spent with them. I held this "volunteer" position for a
year, until I moved out of the telephone exchange and
abandoned the phone number.
I created this web site in 2000 with the
idea that I could offer a list of up to ten solutions or
answer to any personal challenge that is causing extreme
stress to an individual.
You can hire me to brainstorm
solutions to a problem
or simply get advice to your relationship issue. You can
attend a seminar,
or take an online
class; or order
the class notes
or a booklet
that gives you lots of ideas.
You can even purchase the entire library of my
works. Your group can
book me to travel to your community to address your group
or conduct a seminar.
What is brainstorming?
Brainstorming (also called lateral
thinking) is an unrestrained offering of ideas by all
members of a group which seeks solutions to problems.
You'll find a simple instruction for
brainstorming on this page: www.CrisisBrainstorm.com/10ways.html
In
his book Lateral
Thinking,
Edward de Bono gives the differences between vertical and
lateral thinking:
- Vertical thinking is selective, lateral
thinking is generative.
- Vertical thinking moves only if there
is direction in which to move, lateral thinking moves in
order to generate a direction.
- Vertical thinking is analytical,
lateral thinking is provocative.
- Vertical thinking is sequential,
lateral thinking can make jumps.
- With vertical thinking one has to be
correct at every step, with lateral thinking one doesn't
have to be.
- With vertical thinking one uses the
negative in order to block off certain pathways. With
lateral thinking there is no negative.
- With vertical thinking one concentrates
and excludes what is irrelevant, with lateral thinking one
welcomes chance intrusions.
- With vertical thinking categories,
classifications and labels are fixed, with lateral thinking
they are not.
- Vertical thinking follows the most
likely paths, lateral thinking explores the least
likely.
- Vertical thinking is a finite process,
lateral thinking is a probabilistic one.
The main features of a brainstorm session
are cross stimulation, suspended judgment, and the
formality of the session.
From
their first book, Wishcraft: How to Get
What You Really Want,
Barbara Sher and Annie Gotlieb say:
All true winners are people who have
taken conventional "wisdom" as a sporting challenge,
instead of a pronouncement of defeat. They assume that its
rules were meant to be broken, so they don't even stop to
ask, "Can it be done?" They just ask,"How?" Answers to that
question start turning up as soon as you suspend all rules
of conventional "wisdom" and look at each problem with
pure, playful creativity, as if it had never been seen on
earth before. That's brainstorming....
You may be interested in Andrea's report,
distilled from her speech:
Jump Start Your Creative Genius at
Work
More of my brainstorms
in print:
No Surprises!
365 Critical Questions You
Need to Ask Each Other Before You Marry ... and how to
ask them
4 booklets for $12.00 until supply runs
out
The Bed & Breakfast Guest Etiquette
Quiz (Mentioned
in USA Today, 9/19/03)
Let's Do Something ...besides
Dinner and a Movie Dating
Activity Handbook
Romantic & Playful
Toronto: 750
Things to Do... picks up where guidebooks leave off
Cheap Thrills: 65 No Cost, Low Cost Romantic
Ideas for Valentine's Day
101 Sure-fire Places Where Singles Can Successfully Meet
Other Single Adults
25 Unusual Ways to Raise the $25,000 or $25
Million You Need
Sell Your Mobile Home Yourself in 60
Days 150 Tips
that will save you $500 to $6,000 in agent
commissions.
