There has been a definite buzz surrounding the recent Biggerplate Unplugged Conference in London. Everyone who’s anyone in the Mind Mapping world was in attendance last week; bloggers, developers, practitioners. This event even provided a rare opportunity for industry leaders to come together to discuss their predictions for the future of Mind Mapping.
Generate genius ideas that work this year with tips from GRASP The Solution by ThinkBuzan CEO, Chris Griffiths1. Brainstorm the right way
Contrary to popular belief, a team brainstorming session is often the death of big ideas.
The problem is, we are all very impressionable creatures and can’t help but react to those around us. This means that a group of people sitting down to fire out ideas will essentially only be reacting to the first idea voiced out loud. The following conversation will merely be a combination of people supporting or negating that first idea, and other ideas based on associations with the first. It becomes more of an analytical session rather than one of free-flowing ideas.
With accredited trainers in over 40 countries around the globe, our ThinkBuzan Licensed Instructor courses inspire creative thinking and innovation together with a unique neworking opportunity. Attendees from all four corners of the world share experiences and fresh ideas.
We had some fantastic news come in this week. Our CEO Chris Griffiths’ latest book GRASP The Solution: How to find the best answers to everyday challenges has been nominated for an award in the management category of the 2012 Small Business Book Awards.
Since its release in October 2011, the book’s had some amazingly positive reviews but this is definitely 
the icing on the cake! Chris is absolutely thrilled and considers it a great honour to be nominated.
The Small Business Book Awards were created to recognise and celebrate books that make a difference to small business owners, managers and start-up entrepreneurs. This is now the fourth year for these awards and the competition is getting fierce!
Chris would love to do well in this competition – but in order to do that he needs your votes! If you’ve read GRASP The Solution and benefited from it – or simply enjoyed it – then we’d be extremely grateful if you could put in your vote for it.
As the New Year approaches, the mental list of New Year’s resolutions starts to form; usually a lengthy list with the aim of dispelling annoying personal habits, or reaching professional goals – and always with a few of the usual suspects making a repeat performance from the year before.
Many New Year’s resolutions emanate from the downfalls, disasters and misjudgements of the previous year, as a last-ditch attempt to avoid repetition in the New Year. We think that by avoiding the same failures, we might somehow pave a path to a more positive outcome at the end of the next year.
CEO of ThinkBuzan and co-author of Mind Maps for Business, Chris Griffiths, argues that this reactive mode of thinking simply doesn’t cut it in the modern world. “What worked in the past no longer fits the bill so we’re being forced to ‘up our game’”.
Rather than simply avoiding making the same mistakes again, we need to be more creative and more innovative. We need to look forwards, for new opportunities and anticipating future bumps in the road. In other words, we need to be proactive.
We were over the moon this week to come across a couple of top reviews of our CEO, Chris Griffiths’ recently released book GRASP The Solution.
The first came from ForeWord Reviews. Based in the United States, this organisation is one of the few remaining wholly independent review sources, which makes it even better to see GRASP The Solution receive a superb 5 star rating from their reviewer Barry Silverstein. The book is described as ‘far-reaching’ and ‘engaging’ and the Mind Mapping chapter was especially well-received!
16th November 2011, by Chris Griffiths
Not long ago I had the great privilege to be interviewed by Liam Hughes of Biggerplate.com. We had an enjoyable chat about my new book GRASP The Solution, the value of thinking creatively in tough times and the role that Mind Mapping can play.
Liam challenged me to share my perspectives on all sorts of sticky matters concerning creativity and innovation. Crucially, I debunk the myth that some people aren’t the ‘creative type’ or don’t have a creative brain. With the aid of a defined system and process, absolutely anyone can be creative and put new ideas into practice.
Other topics discussed include the GRASP concept and how the different modes of thinking affect creativity, the Solution Finder process for achieving ‘practical creativity’ and the usefulness of Mind Maps for capturing and cultivating ideas.
It’s well worth checking out. Read the complete interview on Biggerplate.com.
30th September 2011, by Chris Griffiths
So you’ve been looking at your innovative output and have decided it’s time for a new approach. You need to bring some fresh ideas to your business and performance if you’re going to avoid being ‘left behind’. Up to now, you’ve tried all sorts of creative tools and techniques but, for some reason, you’re just not hitting on that killer idea that you really need – the one that will lead you to conquer your specific challenge and overcome ‘sameness’.
Unfortunately a lot of people don’t realise it’s the barriers they impose on themselves that prevent them from coming up with really great ideas. I’ll be speaking about this subject and more at the Like Minds Innovation + Opportunity Conference in Exeter, UK on 20th October, the day following the launch of my new book GRASP The Solution. My talk on ‘Why You Can’t GRASP That Killer Idea’ kicks off at 10am during the ‘Disrupting the Norms’ session. Join me at the event and find out how to let go of the unhelpful thinking habits that hold you back from applying your limitless creative potential. Tickets are available now with a special early bird rate.
For more information or to register for the event go to http://wearelikeminds.com/events/exeter
It would be great to see you there!
Chris Griffiths
27th September 2011, by Chris Griffiths
Last week I had the great fortune to interview Stephen Shapiro, one of the foremost authorities on innovation in business and author of one of my much loved books on the subject – 24/7 Innovation: A Blueprint for Surviving and Thriving in an Age of Change.
We chatted about his new book Best Practices Are Stupid: 40 Ways to Out-Innovate the Competition which highlights how many of our current efforts to boost innovation can actually destroy it! Watch the interview and learn about some of Stephen’s counterintuitive yet proven strategies for encouraging innovation in the workplace.
Watch my interview with Stephen Shapiro here:
Best Practices Are Stupid: 40 Ways to Out-Innovate the Competition by Stephen Shapiro is out on 29th September 2011 and is available on Amazon. Visit www.steveshapiro.com for more information.
I was recently interviewed by JournoNews publication. Check out the article for insights on innovation in the workplace and some perspectives from my new book ‘GRASP The Solution’.
Here’s a taster of the interview:
JournoNews chats with Chris Griffiths, CEO of ThinkBuzan and author of ‘GRASP The Solution’, a refreshingly pragmatic approach to making decisions and solving problems creatively.
What prompted you to write ‘GRASP The Solution’?
Essentially, it was a lifelong study into modern brain based strategies that, bit by bit, led to my desire to write the book. Over the years, I’ve applied strategies based on how the brain works in all the companies I’ve been involved in. For instance, at Birchfield, where our educational products were in 80% of UK secondary schools, we didn’t focus just on the content, we focused on the delivery of the content to students and the impact it had on the brain.