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“You really need to be better at thinking on your feet. You were way too quiet in there.”

That’s the fun feedback I got from my boss after a very long “brainstorming” meeting. This was early in my career and I really let it get to me. For years after, I sweated meetings and routinely kicked myself if I hadn’t thrown out a handful of frenzied ideas along with the rest of the group.

I got over it. Eventually.

It took years to learn this about myself, but I finally realized and accepted that everyone doesn’t need to think at the same pace to be effective. I also learned that group brainstorming sessions are complete bullshit. Typically they become an exercise in everyone making sure the room knows how smart they are. I’ve never been part of an idea-vomiting party that resulted in a great solution. Usually they fizzle into an apathetic pile of half-baked concepts that nobody knows how to execute.

I used to listen to my colleagues whip up complex schemes on the fly and bat them around the table like wadded up pieces of paper. I could follow the conversation, but trying to get my own creativity operating in the melee was almost impossible. I had the confidence to speak, I just couldn’t think.

For a while I researched all kinds of articles online to see if I could change the way I operate. I was so sure that I was somehow inadequate. Sure enough, the Internet assured me that I was indeed totally lame because I couldn’t toss out fully-formed ideas like walnuts in a salad.

They made me feel like crap. The thing is, I’m a smart person. I’m a creative person. And one of my unique skills since childhood has been coming up with simple analogies for complex concepts. So it was pretty ridiculous that I was being shamed into feeling that I just couldn’t keep up and had to change.

Here’s how it works for me. I’m an observer, a sponge, a Bounty paper towel of things going on around me. So after I soak up everything in the room, I go away to a quiet place and wring myself out into a basin. It’s only after gaining true understanding of an issue that really juicy and effective ideas get compiled by my brain.

I still admire quick thinkers. It can be fun to watch, and I’ve worked with some truly genius people who could access their brains as quick as a Gmail search.

I’m not going to be that person. More importantly, that’s completely okay. I don’t have to be. You don’t have to be, if that’s not the way you operate.

Think about how you come up with your best ideas. How does it work? What do you do to make that happen? Because the path you took to get there is not going to work for someone else. In the end, the result is what matters. We need to teach our kids this little secret so they can confidently contribute to a team.

I’d love to hear how you operate. Toss it out there in the comments. NOW! Quick! You’re taking too long…

But seriously, I’d love to hear from you. Take your time.

Imagine this: You work in a library in which anything goes. Money is no object. Space is no object. Staffing is no object. Going out into the community is no object. And so on. If you worked in that library what would your wildest and craziest ideas for serving teens be?

Would you…

• Have libraries all over the community but not in a traditional library facility? For example, a library in the pizza place where teens go every day after school and every weekend? A library in the clothing store where teens go to see the latest fashions? A library in the park where teens hang out?
• Make sure that every teen in the community – no matter what their book reading preference – was a library user in some way?
• Give every teen a tablet of some kind with free Internet access so they could download books and apps, play games, do homework, talk with friends, participate in social media from everywhere anytime?
• Create a large wide-open physical library space for teens where they could collaborate on projects, hangout with friends, eat and have pizza delivered, watch movies, play games, and read and do homework?
• Have the most up-to-date technology possible available to every teen in the community without filters of any kind?
• Go to every meeting of community groups that have some connection to teens and/or education and become highly involved in all those that you might collaborate with?
• Regularly speak to elected officials and community members about youth development, developmental assets, and the ways in which the library helps teens to achieve these?
• Have the physical library teen space, no matter where it is, open 24/7 so that teens can have the access they need to resources, experts, etc. at any time of day, or night?
• Be able to make changes to library programs and services on a nimble and flexible basis? No waiting for making sure something is perfect before it launches. No waiting to get approvals. Beta testing of projects is the norm.
• Make sure that every library staff member and member of the community always gives teens the respect they deserve?

In order to be innovative it’s important to think about the wildest and craziest possibilities so to get to what has true potential. I think that sometimes in libraries we get so caught up in the day-to-day that we forget to simply go crazy and think about what we would really like to see happen in order to give teens excellent service.  Sure, there might be barriers.  But who cares when you are being purposely crazy as a brainstorming technique? Maybe when you are thinking outside of the box you’ll all of a sudden have an epiphany and realize that something you think is impossible is possible–you just have to tweak the concept a little bit. Or, maybe if you talk to others about your crazy ideas someone might say, “You know what, that’s not so crazy really. We could do that if we just…..”

So, go crazy. In the comments section of this post take a minute to write what are your wildest and craziest ideas in order to provide really great service to teens in the 21st century. Or, if you’ve had a crazy idea and thought it would never fly, but did, write that too. If you read someone’s crazy idea and think of a way to make it work, post that. Lets all go crazy together and innovate for library teen services at the same time.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user David Dennis Photos.com

Searching for the Right Ideas

Brainstorming, created by advertising genius Alex Osborn, is meant to be a group activity, a way to encourage everyone to participate. It’s usually set up with rules that encourage ideas, even if they are wild, while discouraging any negative comments which might stem the flow of ideas. What it encourages is the flow of ideas, without concern for quality.

But what if you’re alone, or no one really knows what you’re working on and you want to keep it that way?

I’m still working on brainstorming my ideas for a novel and here are some things I look for:

Prompts. Randomness is good. By adding in random tidbits here and there, you have a better chance of creating something new and fresh. That’s where prompts come in. For example, Natalie Goldberg has many odd (in a good way) prompts in her book about writing memoirs, Old Friend from Far Away. It almost doesn’t matter as long as you try to relate each piece of writing toward the idea you have.

Tools: Beyond brainstorming, there are literally dozens of structured ways to search for new ideas. The idea-generation techniques may be intuitive or structured, systematic or random. I like this book as a reminder of various techniques: Thinkertoys: a handbook of creative-thinking techniques by Michael Michalko. Or for fun, try his ThinkPak card pack.

You know what I like best about this time when I’m starting a new novel? I’m never wrong. Right now, before anything is committed to paper, the new story is all possibilities and that’s so nice. No critiquer can tell me I’ve done something poorly. At least not yet.

Here’s to fresh, exciting, high concept and fun ideas.

How to Write a Picture Book. Ebook, immediate download. $10.

Honky-Tonk Heroes & Hillbilly Angels: the Pioneers of Country & Western Music, words by Holly George-Warren, pictures by Laura Levine, Houghton Mifflin, 2006

I was a fan of Warren and Levine's first collaboration, Shake, Rattle and Roll: The Founders of Rock & Roll so I was ever so pleased to see them take up this music. Holly George Warren certainly has the bona fides to write about the subject.

A book like this reminds me of how much fun a school librarian can have with lesson plans. I can imagine using this to teach "Biography" and sharing these musicians' music along with their stories. Kids today sing "Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer" but have they ever heard of Gene Autry? Shouldn't they experience the musical virtuosity of Bill Monroe?

Warren has a one page biography on each artist with important dates and milestones from their life and career. She begins the book, appropriately, at the beginning, with a profile on the Carter family.

Laura Levine has painted a full page portrait of each musician with their name worked into the art work. Each member of the Carter family is designated along with "The First Family of Country Music." Bill Monroe is titled "The Father of Bluegrass" and Loretta Lynn's "The Coal Miner's Daughter" appears in the smoke plume coming from a small cabin. Each painting is featured in a period frame so you feel as if you are looking at a grouping of family pictures.

All the greats are included: Patsy Cline, Roy Acuff, Kitty Wells, Ernest Tubbs, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, George Jones, Tammy Wynette and more.

I think it would be so much fun during Rodeo time here in the Lone Star State, to turn on some Western (we call it Texas) Swing and share the story of Bob Wills.

Holly George-Warren Website

Someone from my school in NH emailed me the other day and wanted me to write a poem for one of the teachers who is retiring, since I often did that when I was still working. No problem...told them to send me ideas of what they would like in the poem...key words, so to speak, and I could do it. Took me about an hour or less.

Last week the moderator of an on-line children's poetry critique group I used to moderate wrote and invited me to return to the group, since they had an opening. I did, but that means I need to start writing in verse again. And I could do that if I had any ideas about what subject to write about. It's so much easier for me if someone gives me a topic...then I can write. It's happened often with my writing...even with KNOWING JOSEPH, where a psychologist who works with families of children with autism suggested I write a story about a sibling who felt he needed to be perfect. No problem...I did it.

So here is what I would like...help me brainstorm ideas or topics for some children's verse...what would you like to see a poem or a rhyming picture book about? Give me some key words to write about..help me get started.

On another note, we are off to Georgia tomorrow for a few days to see the grandkids one more time before they leave for Germany, where my son will be stationed for the next two or three years. At least it will be a nice place to visit in the fall or next spring.