Category: Creativity
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Brainstorming sucks; try some different ways to create ideas
I finally gave in and admitted it: Brainstorming sucks. This was difficult for me, because I’ve been in brainstorming sessions that worked virtual miracles, the surfaced ideas that astounded us with their clarity and brilliance. But let me be realistic: For every great brainstorming session I’ve experienced, I’ve been in several that were soul-sucking, time-wasting…
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Don’t waste your lunch break — 18 ways to get the best from your time
Are you getting the most out of lunch? If you always work through lunch, you’re doing it wrong. A recent post at thr Hubspot Marketing blog gives 14 Things You Could Be Doing During Your Lunch Break: Work on a side project. Organize a “Lunch and Learn.” (gather with co-workers to teach each other interesting…
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Your presentations are making you look stupid — but there’s a easy fix
If you’re like most fundraisers, you spend a lot of time creating and consuming PowerPoint presentations. How much of that time is a screaming waste that not only fails to communicate, but also destroys your effectiveness? It doesn’t have to be that way. Used properly PowerPoint can be a great communications tool. Used the way…
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How to take control of your fundraising life
I know quite a few nonprofit people who are virtually slaves. I’m not talking about their salaries. I’m talking about their lack of control over what they spend their time doing. They spend their time in a perpetual tail-chasing struggle to keep up with the urgent, day-to-day stuff that fills their life. So much so,…
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How John Cleese can make you a better fundraiser
Watch this video. It’s only a bit over 10 minutes long. And it’s John Cleese. You won’t regret the time you spend on it. It’s about creativity, something we all need to pay close attention to. Or watch it here on YouTube. Cleese has two powerful pieces of advice for boosting your creativity: Recognize the…
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How to get your creativity back
Sometimes you feel like a wrung-out sponge. No more ideas, no more creative energy, no more inspiration. That sucks. Here are some ways to get the creativity back, from Geoff Livingston’s blog, at 15 Ways to Restore Your Creativity: Take a Vacation Explore a Different Creative Path Meditate Go to a Live Event Watch a…
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Get the most from your fundraising creative professionals
One of the big killers of direct-response fundraising is disconnected, irrelevant creative produced by writers or designers who don’t grasp the job at hand. Direct Creative Group Blog has some suggestions for beating this problem at To Catch the Best Creative, Fish Upstream: Tie your creative specialists’ success … to their continuing professional education as…
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During the year-end crunch, are you taking care of brain?
When you are over-busy, harried, and stressed (as I’m guessing you are about now) — you are paying a very steep tax on everything you do: You are less effective, less perceptive, less creative than you can be. Nobody is exempt from the stress tax — though most of us think we are: I can…
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How to get ideas without brainstorming
In my experience, most brainstorming is worse than a waste of time. Most brainstorming sessions are idea slaughter, not idea generation. I’ve also been in a few brainstorming sessions that were awe-inspiring sources of new thinking and ideas. But far more brainstorming has been idea slaughter than the good kind. Here’s why, according to The…