Jim Henson was a brilliant dude. He created the flippin’ MUPPETS!! As covered here numerous times, I have a thing for Henson’s characters. (Check out my previous Muppet love: What Type of PR Muppet Are You?, Blog Like Cookie Monster, and a list of my Favorite Muppet Songs.)
One of his most intriguing groups of characters were the residents of Fraggle Rock.
You remember the Fraggles, don’t you?
Besides the main Fraggles (Wembeley, Red, Gobo, Mokey and Boober – yes, their names were AWESOME!), there were the Doozers, Gorgs, Marjory the Trash Heap and the aptly-named Uncle “Traveling” Matt, who constantly roamed the strange outside world.
They ate radishes, sang songs, skirmished with their rival “Enemy Fraggles,” and generally loved life.
You are probably asking yourself: “Self, how the heck is Mike going to turn this into something meaningful for PR and Social Media?”
Fear not, my friends. Here we go.
One unique trait of the Fraggles is “dream sharing.” If the Fraggles fell asleep with their heads touching, they could traverse through each other’s dreams.
Now, I am NOT advocating crawling under the conference room table and taking a nap with your co-workers. Unless you are in to that sort of thing and all participants are willing. Nonetheless, the lesson here is to be OPEN when you brainstorm. And here’s how you do it:
1. Be Complete: While brainstorming, bring your idea to life. Some ideas you have may be ready-to-share concepts, while sometimes you may just have a few works floating around. Whatever you’ve got, share it with your team.
2. Don’t Be Too Proud: Ok, Einstein, you really aren’t the end-all and be-all of ideas. Your team members may take your “brilliant” idea and turn it into something even better. Instead of being upset that you didn’t come up with the final action plan, be confident that your concept turned into something more.
3. Pitch In: The New Radicals had a great song, entitled, “You Get What You Give.” In order to be taken seriously in a brainstorming session, you’ve got to speak up and help shape other people’s ideas, just like they will help mold yours. Unlike #2, YOU may be the one tweaking someone else’s concept into the plan the boss wants to run with. Not too shabby!
What other brainstorming tips and techniques have worked for you?
Good stuff. I love how you take seemingly unrelated topics (i.e. Muppets & Fraggles) and relate them to PR/ Social Media and real life lessons.
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