Monday morning blues   - By R. Sridhar

The essence of all this is a single-minded message. To John Kao, author of Jamming. The Art & Discipline of Business Creativity, "Brilliant weekend inspiration must stand up to the harsh scrutiny of weekday judgment."

Here are a few tips from several successful creative people I know.

1. Negotiate the deadline: Most people assume that the deadline is non-negotiable. Most often, it is not true. If you can get more time, go for it.

2. Get clarity on the task: However urgent it might be, restate your understanding of the task or challenge and verify if it is correct. If you get this wrong, you will have wasted a lot of time.

Here is one way to do it. "As I understand it, you want fresh ideas to get more of our credit card customers to use revolving credit. Is that right?" This gives an opportunity for the other person to clarify his own thinking too.

3. Clear the mind: This is critical. However urgent the task, a clear, unbiased mind helps. People do various things to clear the mind. Imagery works wonders. Imagine that you have completed the task successfully. What would life be like? Imagining the benefits could be inspiring.

4. Plan: Even a person who has to give an impromptu speech plans. He quickly decides the concluding message he wants to leave for the audience. He puts together one or two key arguments to build the case. It is only the inexperienced people who ramble. Therefore plan you must. If you get 30 minutes, decide how much time you will spend on generating ideas, processing them and developing a possible solution. Example: Generating ideas - 10 minutes. Processing Ideas - 15 minutes. Developing possible solution - 5 minutes. If it is a real emergency, it is time for quick action. You will spend less time in generating options and more time on action.

5. What to do, where to go and whom to ask: Capture all your ideas on the issue. Do not censor anything.

Speak to a few colleagues/friends and get their perspectives.

Draw up your wish list. Write out everything you wish you could do to meet the challenge.

View from the top. If you were the boss, what would you do?

If money were no constraint, what would you do?

If time were no constraint, what would you do?

If all the right resources (people, infrastructure, technology) were available what would you do?

Play around with this lot of ideas. Substitute. Combine. Adapt. Modify. Maximise. Minimise. Exaggerate. Eliminate. Reverse. Rearrange.

Use this lot as raw material for processing.

6. Do not aim for perfection: Be sensible. All you can get in 30 minutes are a few possible ways to meet the challenge. You will select one to work on details immediately thereafter.

Learn from the masters

Getting ideas spontaneously is not an accident. It needs constant practice. Ask those people who practice for quiz programmes. It is like a high-speed computer accessing the right information with an efficient search.

This obviously requires practice and mastery. What do you need to master?

*Master the art of asking the right questions. The better you get at this, the more effective you will be. The trick is to ask a few but powerful, pertinent questions.

Understand how to frame the questions correctly and ask them in the right tone. The critical thing is not to put the other person on the defensive.

*Master the art of listening, without interruption or distraction. Do not fight shy of taking notes. Smart people take notes of what the other person says and jot down their ideas that occur to them immediately.

*Master a few idea-generation techniques that are productive for you. Examples: Challenging Assumptions. Beg, Borrow or Steal. Life after Success. Different people are comfortable with different techniques. Check out what suits your temperament best.

*Master idea processing and idea articulation. How do you process the ideas? What connections and patterns can you see? How do you articulate ideas? How well can the other person understand what you have in mind?

*Master the art of presenting ideas and solutions. However powerful your idea might be it will not fly unless the decision maker buys into it. Understand the psychology of buying into an idea and present ideas persuasively. Understand how to make a case.

*Master the art of overcoming objections. Overcoming objections is not about winning arguments. It is about reducing the other person's anxiety and concerns. It is about the ability to put yourself in another person's shoes and listening with empathy.

*Master the art of collaboration. Offer to be an idea resource to colleagues who want ideas. Help them with the process. Since it is not your problem, you will have a lot of objectivity and freedom. This will give you a lot of practice too.

*Master the art of networking. On any issue, you should know who the right expert you can approach is. Keep a list of such people and cultivate them. They can be extremely useful in emergencies. Very often in emergencies what you need is access to the right expert. Not just an idea.

*Master the art of communication. Internet, e-mail, chat, newsgroups, SMS and so on are powerful support to today's managers. There is no excuse for not using these effectively.

*Master the art of playfulness. Playful minds are fertile minds. Humour lubricates thinking, busts mental blocks. Do not take yourself and your job so seriously that you forget to laugh at a good joke.

People who have a reputation for coming up with ideas fast are like musicians who improvise on the spot and wow the audience. Both know their subjects, and practise relentlessly. They know there are no short cuts to mastery.