Here's the deal. Most creative people have a pattern of behavior, a way of generating ideas.

You will be more productive - get more ideas and better ideas - if you push beyond your normal pattern of behavior.

To start, you should plan and organize the way you approach the creative process. And make sure that your plan includes a variety of different ways to generate ideas.

How you do that is up to you. Here’s one way:

1) First, make sure you thoroughly understand the creative brief, and the product or service, to the point you can “sell it” to a prospective customer.

Then:

2) Go through each of challenges in the advertising IdeaMachine. Do so alone.

3) Conduct a brainstorming session with a group of creative and other people.

4) Play some of the creative games in this workshop, perhaps your creative partner or with another creative team.

Once the creative juices get flowing, don’t turn off the tap – let it flow. Scribble down each idea as fast as you can. And move on to the next one.

By the time you've completed step 4 you should have scores of solid ideas, and perhaps a few sparklers. Maybe even something brilliant.

In the approach outlined above, you start by working alone. Then with a larger group. Then a smaller group. And you do different things in each setting to generate concepts.

Adjust the things you do depending on the scope of the project. For a small project with a tight deadline you might just play a creative game or tow, or run through the IdeaMachine.

Notes:

When you get a new project, especially a big project, it is wise to develop a plan of action, a list of different things you can do to generate concepts. Then set about doing them.

If you look at the story behind many award winning, lead generating campaigns you find a history of rejected ideas. You'll find creative teams that generated hundreds of ideas, and had many rejected by the client, before they came up with a winner.