Looking back at 2016 with our top 10 articles
First of all, I trust you’re having a tip top festive break filled with joy and peace and love and all that good stuff. Just in case you want to use your free time to feed your mind, I thought I’d give you a run down of our top 10 articles of 2016. OK, so Open for Ideas has only been around for a quarter of the year but a lot has happened in that time. And none of it would have been possible without the support of some fantastic people and all our amazing contributors – and, of course, readers like you.
As I take a step back to see what Open for Ideas has achieved since our launch in October, I feel immensely lucky. This is a phenomenal journey to be on. It’s pretty-much turned into a full-time job for me. One that I really believe in. Now all I have to do is work out how to use it to help pay the rent. But I guess that’s a job for 2017!
In the meantime, here are the 10 articles that really took off this year.
– 10 –
A beginner’s guide to
human insight
–
‘Insight’ is one of these words you hear a lot in creative-land. People around the table will nod sagely about the importance of insight while not quite knowing what it is and how you go about getting it. So John J Sills wrote this helpful piece to show how people get it wrong and how to go about doing it right.
Read all about it here.
– 9 –
7 ways to come up with ideas
you wouldn’t normally have
–
It’s easy to limit the kinds of ideas you have by giving yourself false expectations. This article gives you a bunch of ways to smash those boundaries and come up with ideas you wouldn’t normally have.
Read all about it here.
– 8 –
Why brainstorms suck and
what you can do about it
–
Like most of our contributors, Flick Hardingham hates brainstorms. In this article, she explains why they’re scientifically flawed and offers better ways to generate ideas.
Read all about it here.
– 7 –
What being ‘trans’ taught me
about branding
–
This beautifully brave and frank article was perfectly timed. It was written by a creative director who has only recently come out as transgender. And we published it a couple of days before Transgender Day of Remembrance to show our support of every kind of diversity.
Read all about it here.
– 6 –
17 presentation tips
I wish I’d known years ago
–
Byron is a former presentation trainer at Apple. So he knows a thing or two about it. And because great ideas are often killed by being presented badly, we asked him to share some of his presentation tips. He’s done that in a few articles now but this one was amazingly popular.
Read all about it here.
– 5 –
If you only read one article about creativity today,
that’s probably enough
–
Aran Rees writes a weekly article for us. He’s always insightful and often controversial. Like right here where he told readers of a site about creativity to stop reading articles on creativity. Both fortunately and unfortunately, it’s not really affected our stats!
Read all about it here.
– 4 –
The science behind creativity
– what happens in the brain and why
–
We published this article by Dr Jena Field on launch day and it immediately took off. As a science geek, I loved how she explained the neuroscience of creativity so simply. Fascinating stuff!
Read all about it here.
– 3 –
So you want more creativity in the workplace?
Are you serious?
–
One of the great things about Open for Ideas is that it connects me with incredible people, with incredible minds doing incredible things. And Steve Chapman, the author of this article, is one of these people. As well as writing this brilliant article – he also did the fantastic illustration. I’m a big fan!
Read all about it here.
– 2 –
Trump won.
What else are you wrong about?
–
While I was still reeling from the US election results, Aran sent me this brilliant article. He took something the media had got so wrong and used it to demonstrate how our misguided assumptions may be affecting the way we solve problems.
Read all about it here.
– 1 –
Can we please stop referring to people
as left or right brained?
–
The second episode of our Creative Lies video series took off like a rocket. Probably because it shattered one of the most overused clichés about creativity. You now have full permission to give anyone a wedgie if they tell you that they’re “left brained” or they’re “looking for more right brained thinking” (*Open for Ideas will not be held accountable for the aftermath of such actions).
Read all about it here.
We’re looking forward to giving you lots more brilliant articles like these in 2017. Plus kick-starting some other plans that are currently in the works.
In the meantime, enjoy the rest of your festive break. And we wish you an idea-packed 2017.
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Now he runs Open for Ideas and helps individuals and companies become more creative.
You can find him speaking at conferences all over the world. And sharing his thinking in boardrooms, universities and dimly-lit pubs.
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