Sure, I love innovation and creativity, but I have a secret passion, a nigh-uncontrollable lust, for….order. My guilty secret reading pleasure? Consumer Reports, with their luscious descriptions of exactly how they tested those toaster ovens (“We placed slices of white bread across the surface of the oven rack and then measured how many square centimeters of bread were burned at the highest “toast” setting….”). My guilty secret writing-subject pleasure? Bluegrass music, of course, but I’ve also, often, fallen into that blissful flow experience while writing procedures manuals. (Note: I’ve rarely ever met anyone remotely like me in this regard, but if you have, and if that person is a single man, let me know!)

So imagine how jazzed I was to discover this exceedingly well-ordered taxonomy on idea generation methods, put together by consultants from Martin Leith Limited in Brighton, England. The authors organized a hundred or so idea generation methods into a somewhat hierarchical framework of different worldviews:

• Worldview 1: The world is a machine


• Worldview 2: The world is an ecosystem


• Worldview 3: The world is a field of energy and consciousness. (Be still my heart! It’s tagmemics!)


My lustful ravings about the taxonomy aside, this is a great resource for idea-generation techniques. I counted 128 methods listed (although a few are cross-references). And if this authors’ disclaimer describes you -- “It is inevitable that people will disagree with some of our categorisation decisions. So be it. The taxonomy is intended to give some coherence to a complex subject. If you find any aspect of it annoying or unhelpful, our advice is that you simply acknowledge this and let it go.” -- then you’ll be pleased to know that there is also an alphabetical list of the idea-generation methods and descriptions. And the authors do say they welcome input on any idea generation methods they may have left out.


Oh yes -- at the end the alphabetized list there are 15 more idea-generation techniques listed under the heading “More will be written about these methods soon.” On this list of 15 was country music!!! No, really!!! As much of a country music “expert” as I like to think I am, I have never heard of it as an offical idea-generation method. Though I personally have come up with many a fine idea after spending an evening drinking Shiner and listening to a honky-tonk band.


So anyway, I'll find out about this country-music idea generation thing and report back. As soon as I calm down!!