Idea Stormers: How to Lead and Inspire Creative Breakthroughs

“In a world of hyper-competition and nonstop reinvention, the only sustainable form of business leadership is thought leadership―generating more good ideas faster than anybody else. In Idea Stormers, Bryan Mattimore sets out a collection of insatiably useful practices and revealing case studies to help you and your colleagues rethink your approach to creativity. So here’s an idea: buy this book, apply its uncommon wisdom, and out-think the competition.”
―William C. Taylor, cofounder, Fast Company; author, Practically Radical

“A fun and engaging tour of the creative process. I love Mattimore’s stories, which place their emphasis on real-life examples and proven techniques. This book is sure to boost your imagination and your group’s creative willpower; indeed, it’ll put white caps on your gray matter! Highly recommended.”
―Roger von Oech, author, A Whack on the Side of the Head and the Creative Whack Pack

“To stay ahead of the competition it is absolutely necessary to embrace innovation and creativity, whatever field you are in. In Idea Stormers, Bryan Mattimore clearly articulates must-have processes for leaders to embrace and use to inspire innovative thinking across all functions. One of his most important messages is that leaders should leverage creativity across their organizations. He believes (and I agree) that everyone in your company has the potential to create great ideas that will add value to your culture and your bottom line. All you need to do is engage your associates, make them feel valued, and use some of the techniques in this book to unleash their ideas!”
―Kay Krill, chief executive officer, ANN Inc., Ann Taylor, and LOFT

“Idea Stormers is a practical facilitator’s manual for inspiring creative thinking. It also shows you how to translate new ideas into real world applications. Highly recommended.”
―Michael J. Gelb, author, How to Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci

“As a creative thinking expert, I am very familiar with Bryan Mattimore and his outstanding work in the ideation and innovation consulting field. Bryan is one of the best facilitators and corporate creativity consultants in the world. He is among my heroes who inspire, teach, and guide others in the corporate world on how to create original and implementable ideas that make a difference in our competitive business environment. Mattimore’s newest book, Idea Stormers, offers a host of creative-thinking tools and techniques. More importantly, it provides an excellent framework for unleashing the creativity of groups, no matter what their role or function is within an organization. Mattimore’s behind-the-scenes look at his successes with teams provide you with lessons and techniques to create, inspire, facilitate, and drive creative collaboration to generate the ideas you need to achieve uncommon results. Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much. Mattimore shows us how together we can generate original ideas, make good ideas great, and create game-changing ones.”
―Michael Michalko, author, Thinkertoys, Cracking Creativity, ThinkPak and Creative Thinkering

“Question everything! Hands-on and ready-to-go, here are techniques to get you started.”
―Seth Godin, author, Purple Cow

“Bryan Mattimore has helped me create breakthrough new products for Godiva, generate innovative promotions for The Food Network, and most recently, with re-positioning Good Morning America. I know firsthand that the ideation techniques and innovation processes in Idea Stormers work, and that they can unleash the creative potential of any team. Idea Stormers should be required reading for anyone on the front lines of marketing innovation!”
―Adam Rockmore, senior vice president marketing, ABC Daytime and News and SOAPnet

No matter who you are or what you do, you inevitably face the struggle of generating fresh ideas that will push your work in productive new directions. By now, however, you know you can’t just lock yourself or your group in a room, stare at an empty whiteboard, and wait for inspiration. Only when ideation and innovation processes are well-designed and well-facilitated can you and your group generate an abundance of creative solutions. How can you ensure that your efforts pay off with more and better ideas?

In Idea Stormers, Bryan Mattimore explains the how, what, and why of successful innovation and ideation. He presents a diverse selection of easy-to-learn idea-generating techniques such as “brainwalking,” turning your worst ideas into surprising solutions, wishing your way to real results, and many more. He also provides a framework for how anyone tasked with getting creative results from a group—what he calls a “facilitating leader”—can put these techniques to work. Mattimore has created and applied these practices over years of leading more than two hundred innovation consulting assignments at major organizations, and he shares behind-the-scenes stories of the many real-wolrd creative challenges these techniques helped to solve, such as how Ben & Jerry’s named a new strawberry fudge flavor, how one division of IBM reimagined and transformed their organizational culture, and how the Lutheran Society of America successfully launched a new fundraising program.

With a wide range of tested idea-generation and innovation techniques, Idea Stormers is an indispensable and entertaining guide to developing original, practical solutions—not to mention true breakthroughs—for even the most intractable-seeming creative challenges.