The Ideative Process (TIP) is a methodology for developing ideas. The process is fun and easy and will enhance the abilities of creative people, and give the non-creative people a valuable tool to develop new ideas for products, services, solving problems, and even the arts.

Become Ideative for Life

Ideative is better than Creative. Traditional creative leaves a lot of value untapped

Idea: Product of mental activity. A plan, scheme, method, thought, concept – the product of all such mental function.

Creative: Characterized by originality and expressiveness; imaginative. (American Heritage Dictionary).

The Ideative Process: The ability to proactively and regularly produce unique and valuable plans, schemes, and methods. To solve!

Ideative is for life

Grow More Ideative – Learn and Experience More

Growing more Ideative is an ongoing process, not a one time or a short term function. Ideative is for life, and it is about changing your life so that you expose yourself to more ideas and experiences beginning now and continuing for the rest of your life.

Example: Most of us admire the creativity of people that have beautifully decorated their own home. These talented but non-professional decorators have the “Knack,” or a “Sense of style.” How can those of us without this knack or sense of style (I lack it for my home, clothes, everything!!!), the very un-creative, learn something that is normally considered “Creative?”

Expand the depth and breadth of your life

“You need three things to be an original thinker. First, you have to have a tremendous amount of information – a big database.” Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi, author of Creativity

Experience growth comes from….Doing

Think of growing your experience as building your Life’s Resume. Not the resume you use to get a job but a “resume” that describes your entire life, the consummate you. This is a document you should create and you should compare that document to your definition of success*. If there is a gap, fill it.

*Success: Not just your career but the summation of your life. Your level of achievement and happiness at work, in your family, religious beliefs, with your friends, etc, etc.

How many paintings created by the great masters of painting have you seen?
It is not enough to admire someone else’s great achievement. You need great achievements of your own. The better question to ask is; how many paintings have you painted?

Sports fans appreciate the skill and hard work of the professional athlete. Sports fans that have participated in the sport themselves understand the skill and hard work more than the fan-only because they have experienced the challenges themselves.

Everyone can cheer for a great Tiger Woods drive. Golfers that have practiced and taken lessons for years to improve their game can be amazed at how much further and on target a Woods shot is and how incredibly difficult a shot like that is. Musicians have a special appreciation for the work of other musicians that non-musicians simply can not share, and it takes a painter to truly appreciate the marriage of technical skill, originality, and vision in a great painting.

However, you don’t have to be a star athlete, great musician, or museum artist to gain this appreciation.

You do need the experience of trying.

Experience of Trying

Your next step is to learn to Develop Beyond; grow your Es and Ks beyond your Ideative specialty. These “Universal,” Es and Ks are the spices or catalyst that fire up your brain. Click here for the next page.