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In highschool and the first few years of university I played a strategy card game called Magic: The Gathering, or just “Magic” for short. Magic is a serious game and much like professional poker, there is also a professional tournament series that sees players compete for over six million dollars in cash prizes each year. The pro tour of Magic travels around the world and culminates in the once-a-year World Championships, where the winners walk away with over $50,000 in prize money.

Needless to say the competition is quite fierce and I took the game very seriously for a while, studying deck construction strategy and competing in tournaments around Australia and even overseas in Singapore, Japan, Toronto and once to the World Championships in Seattle.

With such a strong tournament scene a huge support network grew online with many websites available to help Magic players improve their game.

One of the interesting concepts that grew out of the tournament environment is what is known as the “meta-game“. The meta-game is the study of the game environment, what decks and cards should work given what decks and cards you expect others to play. It’s a unique way of strategizing, where you attempt to predict what an environment will be like and use certain cards that specifically counteract other cards.

If your strategy is wrong you will crash and burn since you won’t have the right cards to beat the other decks, but if you study the meta-game well you will come prepared with the specific foils necessary to beat other players.

I like the concept of the meta-game because it gives you a distinct advantage over people who do things blindly, without asking themselves why they are doing something. It’s the study of what motivates others to do something to give yourself an advantage.

What Is Meta-Thinking?

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Every new business, new product or service, and new marketing approach started with an idea. So whether you are looking to create a market-busting product like the iPod, or come up with a campaign idea like the Million Dollar Homepage, there are creativity techniques that can allow you to conceive something new and turn it into reality.

There are three major hurdles to overcome before any idea can come to fruition:

1. Identify a Problem
2. Idea Generation
3. Idea Selection

Needless to say, having a solution without knowing what the problem is doesn’t usually get you very far, so know what it is you’re trying to accomplish and what problem you want to solve.

If you keep up with your industry, talk to customers, study what is not working in your business, you should have a ton of problems you would like to solve. Alternately, you can use sites like Google Trends to find problems that others are trying to solve, and design a better mousetrap.

Once you have that problem firmly in mind, you can begin using some of the proven techniques for generating possible ideas. Then begins the difficult choice of selecting the ideas that have the most potential. The remainder of this article will focus on the second step - Idea Generation.

There are many well-known techniques and methodologies for coming up with ideas including Brainstorming, Talking Pictures, and other group creativity exercises. There are also the many picture-based processes including Ishikawa Diagrams and Mindmaps. Since our minds work using pictures and inter-relationships versus words, many of these techniques are valuable in guiding us to new solutions. A great wiki site that provides an overview of techniques for all three areas of creativity techniques can be found at www.mycoted.com. Peruse the entries to get some insight on current methods of idea generation.

Brainstorming is the most recognized buzz-word associated with idea generation, yet most people are not familiar with exactly what it means or how to go about it; some may picture locking them self in a room, deprived of food and drink until a great inspiration jumps out of their head - however, there are less painful and more productive methods available. Many of these methods have specific ground rules, guidelines, and methodologies (e.g. round robin, think tank, etc.). There are a ton of great sites to help you find a good brainstorming methodology including the Wikipedia entry on brainstorming techniques and also Perfect Brainstorming by Innovation Unlimited.

One of the more informative lists on the latter site is the 10 Rules of Brainstorming:

* Set Directions
* Involve Everyone
* Encourage Cross-Fertilization
* Don’t Overlook the Obvious
* Suspend Judgment
* Don’t Fear Repetition
* Don’t Stop to Discuss
* Record Every Idea
* Apply the 80/20 Rule

My personal belief is that “suspending judgment” is the most difficult rule for many people, and is the one that kills more good ideas before they ever even have a chance. Don’t assume something “will never work” or is “totally hair-brained” until you go through the entire process. It may just turn out to be the seed of exactly what you are looking for - you never know.

Another key observation, is that in almost all of these techniques ideas are generated as a group. Yes, it’s possible to come up with a great idea all by yourself, but working in a small group can provide the momentum to generate many possibilities, or make a good idea even better.

My personal favorite technique for idea generation is Mind Mapping. It is both an organizational, memorization, and creativity tool. It is based on the method that Leonardo Da Vinci used to keep his notebooks and construct new theories. There are even some good software tools related to Mind Mapping to help you get through and document the process: Mind Manager by MindJet, and Map Your Mind by Mayomi. There is also a free tool that is worthwhile called FreeMind . Others can be found at the Wikipedia entry for Mind Maps. If you are interested in some other creativity and idea generation tools that are not related to mind mapping per se, check out Axon Idea Processor and Imagination Engineering.

Finally, if you are interested in this whole topic of innovation in business and idea generation, the best blog I know of on this topic is Idea Flow by Renee Hopkins Callahan at Corante Hub.

So now that you have been inspired (?), get out there and start generating some ideas - and create the success you’ve envisioned for yourself.

******

Michael Martone is the author of the blog VerusNova which helps Small Business owners leverage technology to create a more successful business.

His blog can be found at http://verusnova.com/blog

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