Project planning: the way to get good ideas
September 21st, 2012 GTD Times Team - Staff ContributorsCategories | Best Practices of GTD | Cognitive Science | Creativity | Getting Things Done | Humor | Implementation | Inspiration | Psychology of GTD
The GTD Natural Planning Model is a great way to plan any project. A key step in the model, after deciding on the purpose and sucessful outcome, is to do some brainstorming. Here’s a key for successful brainstorming: Have lots of ideas! How? By encouraging everyone to present their ideas without censoring. Sometimes the apparently bad ideas need to get expressed to clear the way for the obviously good ideas. In the brainstorming phase, do your best to encourage complete expression, be open, non-judgmental, and resist critical analysis. Don’t worry—an idea that really doesn’t fit will get sorted out in the organizing and next action phases. And who knows? The idea that doesn’t fit for this project may be just what is needed for another project.
It’s important to keep all the ideas that come out during a brainstorming session, including those that get set aside. These ideas could become useful later during the project, or could be used in a different project later. Creating an (preferably online) archive of these ideas, that all teams can refer to during brainstorming sessions for their projects, could prove very useful.
Joe MacNish
http://www.TrackerOffice.com