June 4, 2025 • 30 mins
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Creativity isn't just a business buzzword—it's a divine gift that Christ-centered leaders can harness through intentional brainstorming. This episode reveals how biblical wisdom perfectly aligns with effective idea generation techniques that can transform your organization.
Harold Milby unpacks the scriptural foundation for collaborative problem-solving, pointing to powerful examples like Jethro's organizational advice to Moses and Rehoboam's consultation with his advisors. While the term "brainstorming" may not appear in Scripture, the principles of seeking wisdom collectively, valuing diverse perspectives, and prayerfully discerning solutions are deeply embedded in God's Word.
Discover practical techniques for both individual and group brainstorming sessions that honor biblical principles. From mind mapping and free writing to round-robin sharing and brain writing, these approaches create space for the Holy Spirit's guidance while respecting each person's unique contribution. Most importantly, learn how to create an environment where creativity can flourish—starting and ending with prayer, eliminating criticism, and embracing the truth that "plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisors they succeed" (Proverbs 15:22).
This episode equips Christian business leaders with actionable strategies for generating innovative solutions to complex challenges while remaining firmly grounded in faith. Whether you're facing strategic decisions, operational problems, or seeking new market opportunities, these biblically-aligned brainstorming techniques will help your team collaborate more effectively while honoring God's creative design.
Ready to transform how your organization generates ideas and solves problems? Listen now, then share this episode with fellow Christian business leaders who could benefit from bringing their brainstorming processes under the Lordship of Christ. Remember, as Proverbs 16:3 promises, "Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans."
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to the Christian Business Concepts with
your host, harold Milby.
Christian Business Concepts isdedicated to guiding companies
and business owners in becomingeffective, efficient and
successful through God's Wordand godly principles.
Now, here's your host, haroldMilby.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Great job, kelly, and welcome everyone to this week's
Christian Business ConceptsPodcast.
I'm your host, harold Milby,and each week we discuss
biblical business principles andhow that these principles can
help you have true godly success.
You know, we talk about all ofthe business topics that are,
(00:40):
you know, in the news today andare talked about today, and then
how the Word of God has directprinciples that can be applied
to those business topics.
And, as every week, I alwayspray and ask that you will be
encouraged, that you'll beenlightened and that you'll be
empowered by what you hear todayin this podcast.
(01:02):
Now, be sure to help us growthe CBC community by sharing
this podcast with four or fiveother people and be sure to post
the link.
You can put the link to thispodcast on a Facebook page Not a
page, but you can post it onyour Facebook page and you can
(01:27):
post it also on a LinkedIn pagethat you may have.
So if you'd help us do that,help us grow this community.
We're excited about the so manypeople that listen to the
podcast every week and itcontinues to grow, and every
week I try to give a big shoutout to certain countries or
(01:47):
cities.
This week I want to give a bigshout out to the United Kingdom,
you know, because they, acrossthe pond there, have done such a
great job of getting the wordout.
There's so many people that aredownloading the podcast in the
United Kingdom and we're sothankful for you, we pray for
you and we pray for theChristian businesses there in
(02:09):
the United Kingdom as well asaround the world, because this
podcast is downloaded in almost30 different countries and we're
excited about that and humbledby that, I might say, too.
Now in this week's businessspotlight, I want to mention a
company.
They're an internationalcompany.
They are in Australia, they'rein Canada, they're in South
(02:35):
Africa and others but the nameof the company is Dayspring
Cards Dayspring Cards.
They are a greeting cards andgift company.
They are a wholly-ownedsubsidiary of Hallmark, but
Dayspring operates with adifferent mission.
They operate with a mission tospread hope and encouragement
(02:59):
through what they consider to beChrist-inspired messages in
their gifts and in their cards.
They were founded in the US,but they have an international
distribution network, retailpartnerships all over the world,
and they sell journals andother gifts with Christian
(03:19):
themes, and the products aresold through a lot of bookstores
, christian bookstores,non-christian bookstores, online
platforms, and a lot of theiremphasis is on messages of faith
, on messages of love andbiblical encouragement.
Dayspring collaborates with alot of local churches and
(03:42):
ministries to distributeinspirational material as well.
They are partners withCompassion International to
support child sponsorshipprograms through their product
sales.
And so today's spring we saykeep up the good work.
(04:02):
You're a great example of aChristian not just a
Christian-owned, but aChristian-run company, and we
appreciate you.
Thank you, keep up the goodwork.
Now, you know, as Christianbusiness leaders, we are called
to be good stewards of ourtalents and our resources and
(04:24):
we're to be very wise aboutthose things.
We need to seek innovativesolutions, but not just any
solutions, but solutions thatare God-centered, faith-centered
and that serve others.
And today I want to talk aboutbrainstorming.
Now, I know that brainstormingisn't specifically mentioned in
(04:47):
the Bible.
I get that, but there are somany principles in the Bible
that are used in brainstormingand can be, and it surprises me
in business the number ofcompanies that don't practice
brainstorming.
You know, brainstorming,brainstorming, is a great
process to generate a lot ofgreat ideas, either individually
(05:12):
or collectively.
A lot of the things that I'vedone over my career and I
continue to do that is, I sitdown and either I'll have a
brainstorming session justmyself, or I will have a
brainstorming session justmyself, or I will have a
brainstorming session withpeople such as board members,
other people that are involvedin this work and some of the
(05:34):
other ministries that we'reinvolved in, and it's a great
tool.
It's a great tool for problemsolving, it helps you to make
great plans, it helps you tobring about innovation, but
there's just not very manybusinesses that practice this
art of what I would callbrainstorming, and it really, if
(05:56):
you're a Christian business,you're missing out if you don't
incorporate a greatbrainstorming session from time
to time in your operations.
There, I think you're missingout.
And so today we're going todiscuss how to first understand
the importance of brainstormingin leadership and in business,
(06:17):
and next we're going to learnhow to learn about these
practical techniques forindividuals and groups.
When we're talking aboutbrainstorming, we're also going
to learn how to apply Christianvalues as we're fostering this
creativity, and then we're goingto provide some very actionable
(06:42):
steps and some activities tobegin to implement really good
brainstorming in your workplace.
So let's get started withlaying a biblical foundation.
As I said, you know,brainstorming the word
brainstorming is not in theBible and I get that.
But brainstorming reflectsGod's call to seek wisdom and
(07:07):
creativity.
You know, ephesians 2 and 10says for we are God's handiwork,
created in Christ Jesus to dogood works which God prepared in
advance for us to do.
That's Ephesians 2.10.
So when we engage our minds andwe are collaborating with
(07:27):
others, we really honor God'sdesign for creativity and
community.
So let me just give you acouple of examples right off the
bat.
So in Exodus 18, I reallyencourage you to read that but
this is Jethro, who is Moses'father-in-law.
(07:50):
They have left Egypt with allthe children of Israel, about 5
million people, and they leftEgypt.
And so Jethro was really kindof taking an eye and watching
Moses and watching how heoperates.
And so he goes to Jethro.
I mean, jethro goes to Mosesand he basically tells Moses
(08:14):
dude, I've been watching you andyou're going to wear yourself
out, you're going to burn outbecause you can't do everything.
You cannot be the person thatdoes everything.
So Jethro, in my mind, had abrainstorming session.
So what does he tell Moses to doin Exodus chapter 18?
Well, what he said was is hesaid delegate authority to other
(08:37):
capable men.
He said find you rulers of tens, rulers of fifties, rulers of
hundreds and rulers of thousands, and then let those people take
a lot of the things off of yourplate and then you only have to
deal with those things thatonly you can deal with.
Now I'm paraphrasing.
That's not the words the Biblesays, but if you read Exodus,
(09:00):
chapter 18, that's what he does,that's what he tells Moses, and
so that comes along and itreally helps Moses that he would
have wore himself out becausehe was trying to do everything.
I've seen that happen inchurches with pastors, you know,
because the pastors are doingeverything.
Big mistake, because eventually, first of all, a pastor, a
person, first of all a pastor, aperson cannot manage more than
(09:24):
about 75 people.
So if your church is biggerthan 75, you're going to wear
your pastor out if he's the onlyone doing things.
So it's very important tounderstand.
But that was a brainstormingsession.
Then you have in 1 Kings 12,after the death of King Solomon,
(09:44):
rehoboam was his son and hetakes over as king from King
Solomon and he goes and gets theadvice from both the older,
more experienced advisors, andthen he gets advice from his
younger advisors, youngercontemporaries, we can say it
(10:05):
that way.
And so the old men gave himsome really good advice and he
told them to be lenient and toserve the people, but the
younger men advised him to beharsh and to lay down the law.
And so Rehoboam chose to dowhat the younger crowd was
(10:25):
advising him to do theinexperienced people and it led
to a big split in the kingdom,in the Israeli kingdom, and so
you had Israel, and then you hadJudah, and a couple of tribes
were following Judah, and thatsplit Israel because he didn't
listen.
Now, that's not what I want tofocus on.
(10:46):
What I want to focus on is howthat he met with these
counselors and they brainstormedand they talked about what they
should do, and you had onegroup saying one thing, one
group saying another, and he hadto make a choice.
But it was a brainstormingsession.
So what's the importance ofbrainstorming?
Let's look at a few things.
(11:07):
I think that brainstorming isessential for innovation because
I think it generates a lot ofcreative solutions.
We talk about a lot ofchallenges in business today and
in the world today, but at thesame time, I think good
brainstorming will help youinnovate.
I think it's good for problemsolving.
(11:30):
You know, that's how I solvemost problems that I've had in
my career whether it has been asa vice president, whether it
has been as a regional salesrepresentative over the years,
whatever it may have been when Irun into some complex problems,
complex issues, even ethicaldilemmas or financial
(11:52):
constraints, because thosethings come into play.
But when you begin to getpeople together and you have
brainstorming sessions, youbegin to have ways to solve
those problems.
Another thing I think it does isit helps to build teams.
It really helps to create thisunity, this feeling of
(12:13):
collaboration.
It really reflects the biblicalprinciple that you find in
Proverbs 27, 17, where it saysiron sharpens iron, and so
another man sharpens anotherman's countenance.
But that's what you're doing.
You're trying to sharpen theedge a little bit and I think
(12:36):
when you have people around youand you guys have brainstorming
events, it really does helpsharpen the blade, so to speak.
Right, it also helps you with alot of strategic planning.
It helps you set goals, ithelps you plan events, it helps
you to design different thingsthat's needed.
And then it also creates a lotof spiritual growth as well.
(13:00):
You know, it encourages a lotof prayerful discernment.
You know, because, what youwant to do is make sure that the
ideas that you come up with inthese brainstorming things that
they align, that they align withGod's purpose.
So you want to make sure ofthat.
You know the guy who startedDomino's Pizza, tom Monaghan.
(13:24):
You know he said one time hesaid I sometimes compare my
brainstorming on paper to thedrilling of oil wells.
The only way to strike oil isto drill a lot of wells.
So he's talking about getting alot of ideas when you're doing
brainstorming.
So you have individualbrainstorming right, and when
(13:46):
you do that, that gives you theopportunity to really go deep
and have a lot of focusedreflection.
It's great for personal visionsetting.
You know, getting that visiondetailed out.
It gives you a lot ofopportunity for really just some
initial ideas.
It helps you to generate thoseinitial ideas.
(14:09):
It also enables a lot of leadersto seek God's guidance in the
quietness and the solitude youget alone, as Jesus used to do.
He would get alone in prayer alot more than what you realize
when you read the Gospels.
You'll see it, look for it andyou'll see it.
But a good example of that isMark 1, and around verse 35, you
(14:32):
can look that up and it'sreally good to have individual
brainstorming, especially whenthere's maybe some time
constraints and it really kindof limits your timing of having
a big group brainstormingsession.
But then when you do have groupbrainstorming sessions, that
gives you the opportunity to geta lot of different perspectives
(14:54):
.
It really fosters a lot ofcreativity, a lot of creativity.
You get a lot of collectivewisdom, creativity, a lot of
creativity.
You get a lot of collectivewisdom.
And the Bible talks about thatin 1 Corinthians 12, verses 12
through 14.
It really builds team cohesionand I've seen that in my career.
(15:14):
It encourages people tocontribute and it helps you to
keep everybody focused onservant leadership.
And it's really if you've gotsome complex problems or complex
projects, you want to have agroup brainstorming session.
You know it's just likeorganizing.
(15:35):
You know a new product categoryor whatever it may be, but you
want to be able to do that as agroup.
So let's talk about a fewtechniques for individual
brainstorming.
So why again do we needindividual brainstorming?
Because it allows you again todeeply reflect.
(15:57):
You get free from all theexternal influences and you get
to seek God's wisdom alone.
So it's really good, as I said,for generating the initial
ideas.
But it also helps you toclarify your goals, and maybe
you've got some leadershipchallenges and so you can't have
this collectively with yourleadership team.
(16:17):
So what are some of thosetechniques?
Well, first of all, this one Ihave used many, many times.
It's called mind mapping.
Let I have used many, manytimes.
It's called mind mapping.
Let me say it again mindmapping.
So what is that?
Well, it kind of helps you tocreate this visual diagram.
That kind of helps you toorganize your thoughts around a
(16:40):
singular creative idea or asingular idea.
So you have the one idea right,and so what you're going to do,
we'll kind of look at that asit would be like you put in the
very center of your paper, you'dput that central idea and write
(17:01):
it in that circle, and then youbegin to draw branches out from
that, lines out from that withsmaller circles that have
related ideas to that.
It has related ideas, and thenyou can even have branches out
from that to have even moredetailed ideas and sub-related
(17:26):
ideas to those ideas, and youcan just branch off.
It looks like a big family treeand that's a great way to
brainstorm, because you can putthese ideas, circle them and
then draw a line to where theyfall and where they should be.
And you can use colors, you canuse symbols to highlight
priorities, but I would alwaysencourage you to begin with
(17:49):
prayer.
Ask God for a lot of creativity.
Lord, inspire me with ideas toserve you.
So that's one way of doing that.
As far as for an individualbrainstorming session, then
there's something called freewriting.
Free writing it's where youjust write continuously.
(18:12):
Give yourself 15 minutes, forexample.
Give yourself 15 minutes and,without taking the time to
really edit anything, you juststart writing down ideas.
Don't worry about if it'sspelled ideas, don't worry about
if it's spelled right, Don'tworry about if you articulate it
exactly right.
You want to get the generalconcept of the idea.
The key is that you flow inyour thoughts and you're just
(18:32):
writing furiously.
You just write everything.
Write everything that comes tomind as you're dealing with
whatever it is that the subjectis, and then I would really
reflect on the Word of God,reflect on Scripture, like
Psalms 32 and 8 talks about.
Before writing, before you startthis idea session with just
(18:57):
what we call free writing, andthen, after you get this done,
then you start to review andhighlight, take a highlighter
and highlight certain thingsthat you've written down.
Now I use the computer so Itype it all out.
I'm not the fastest typer inthe world, I'm not the slowest,
I type pretty well, but I justtype it out and then I go back
(19:19):
and highlight it, maybe changethe color of the font or put it
in bullet points.
But first I just start withfree writing and so I do that
from time to time.
And then there's somethingcalled the scamper method and
I've not really dealt with thattoo much.
It is one of the methods thatsome people use, but it just
kind of you use prompts, if Ican say that.
(19:40):
But you use prompts if I cansay that you want to put words
down like substitute, combine,adapt, modify.
You know, put the wordeliminate, put the word reverse
and use these as prompts to comeup with these ideas in your
(20:01):
brainstorming session.
And you know it works reallygood with a topic, a specific
topic, and you can do that.
So you choose a topic and thenyou provide these or apply these
scamper questions, what we callscamper questions.
For example, can we substitute?
(20:21):
There's the word substitute Canwe substitute a guest speaker
with maybe a member-leddevotional if we're talking
about a nonprofit organization.
Can we combine meetings withother projects?
And you list ideas for each ofthose prompts, but you start
(20:41):
with the word that you use tocreate the question and you just
need to pray for discernment tomake sure that your ideas align
.
And then, of course, you need tospend time in prayerful
reflection.
We've talked about this.
Find your quiet space, pray,pray for wisdom, write down
(21:02):
ideas that the Lord begins toshare with you.
I've had my wife have the Lordwake her up in the middle of the
night To write down ideas thatGod plants in her.
She has, I know, in one case inparticular, god woke her up at
3 am.
I was struggling, I was tryingto figure out how to handle a
situation and it was with theowner of the company, my boss,
(21:26):
the CEO, and God gave my wifethe exact words to say and those
were the exact words I used andit really created a
breakthrough for me.
But if you have prayerfulreflection, god will speak to
you.
So you want to make sure thatyou set a clear goal, to make
sure you define the problem,define what the objective is
(21:50):
before you start brainstorming,and you can do that.
Get specific and then eliminateany kind of distractions, get a
quiet place, go somewhere.
A lot of you could utilize yourlibrary.
The Free Public Library isgreat in the US there's many of
them that are really nice andthey have study rooms where you
can get alone and be quiet.
(22:11):
Sometimes, get away out of theoffice and just do that.
I've been places where I go tothe park and I sit there in the
park and I have a notebook and anotepad and I just jot down
ideas and then you just want torefine those ideas as you go
along.
Now, what about group?
What about group brainstorming?
Because that really harnessesthese really diverse kind of
(22:34):
perspectives.
It gives you a lot ofopportunity for collaboration
and it really kind of reflectsthis biblical principle of unity
in the body of Christ that youfind in 1 Corinthians 12, around
verse 12.
And it's great for planning bigevents.
It's great for solving complexproblems or developing really
(22:56):
competitive situations orprojects.
Proverbs 15.22 says plans failfor lack of counsel, but with
many advisors they succeed.
So that's very important tounderstand.
That's a great principle.
So what can we do?
Well, there's classicbrainstorming, where you just
get a group of people and thenyou just start letting the ideas
(23:18):
flow, just let them flow, letthem flow.
You have five to ten people.
You write down everything.
Make sure beforehand you set aclear goal here's what we're
trying to do and make sure youset these rules.
No criticism.
Every idea is welcome and youbuild or springboard I like to
use the word springboard off ofother ideas, because sometimes
(23:39):
you get a bad idea, but that badidea gives you a springboard
into some really good ideas.
So you don't want to judgepeople, you don't want to
criticize, you want it to justflow freely.
Use either a big whiteboard.
They also make these bigtablets.
(23:59):
They're huge but they're likesticky notes and you can just
peel them off and stick them onthe wall, and I kind of like
that method.
You can do round-robinbrainstorming where each person
individually contributes oneidea and then it goes to another
person.
They get another turn, theygive an idea, go to the next
(24:21):
person, and then you can justkeep going around, going around
and going around and do thatsame thing.
So you just sit in a circle andagain you state the goal what's
the goal here?
And then each person shares oneidea each time it comes around
to them, and you want to do thatthree to five times.
You know, go around there andyou know I would begin in those
(24:42):
sessions with like a devotional.
You know the Bible talks aboutin Galatians, chapter 5, it says
serve one another humbly inlove.
So you want to encourage people, to encourage others.
So, anyway, the next is what wecall brain writing.
You know, members basicallywrite ideas individually and
(25:05):
then they share with the teamand they build on them.
And it's really good for peoplewho are a little bit more quiet
.
They're afraid to really speakout, so let them do it in
private and then bring it to ameeting so you can do that.
The other is make sure that youuse again the brain mapping.
(25:26):
That's still a great tool.
It's a good way to do it.
So what are some tips forsuccess, for brainstorming?
Well, first of all, make sureyou create a safe space.
Again, I can't say this enoughDon't criticize.
Don't criticize the ideas anddon't let anybody on your team.
We don't laugh at people, youknow.
We just take the idea.
(25:47):
The whole idea of brainstormingis get as many ideas as you can
on paper or on a whiteboard orwherever you're doing this to a
computer.
Get as many ideas as you can onpaper or on a whiteboard or
wherever you're doing this to acomputer Get as many ideas as
you can and then go back andrefine them, add to it,
springboard off of them.
And then you want to make sureyou have a facilitator.
You need one person that leads.
It could be you, maybe you wantto use a vice president or a
(26:08):
department head, whatever butyou need somebody to be the
facilitator.
Make sure everybody keeps ontime, make sure you enforce the
rules, guide that session along,because if not, you'll get into
a lot of rabbit trails.
Don't allow that to happen.
And then begin and end yoursessions with prayer.
That's key because you want toseek God's guidance and unity
(26:31):
and use as many visual tools asyou can Whiteboards, the big
sticky notepads I said any kindof digital platforms.
There's tons of those out there.
So I just want to encourage youto do brainstorming.
It is truly, truly a tremendousway to do things within your
(26:52):
organization or your business tohelp you get through a lot of
issues that come up in anyorganization.
You know, another book I wouldencourage you to read would be
the Creative Leader by Ed Young,or another book is Think Better
by Tim Herson.
He'll give you some additionalstrategies on top of that.
(27:14):
Two good books there, by twogood authors.
So you know, brainstorming, Ibelieve, is a gift of God.
I believe it enables us toco-create solutions that really
reflect his wisdom.
And, as Christian businessleaders, we need to approach
brainstorming with humility andprayer and a heart to serve.
(27:35):
You know, proverbs 16, 3reminds us commit to the Lord
whatever you do, and he willestablish your plans.
Let your ideas that you come upwith in these brainstorming
sessions really shine.
Shine out for his glory.
Lord, we come before you rightnow in the name of Jesus.
(27:57):
Lord, we thank you for everyonethat's listened to this podcast.
Now, lord, they're all atdifferent levels, different
levels of leadership, differentlevels of business or
organizations, but they're notall the same.
They're all different.
But, lord, help them to see thepower of brainstorming.
Help them to see that, lord,you are a creative God, you're a
(28:20):
God of wisdom and, lord, we seeso many examples throughout the
Word of God of how people usebrainstorming techniques, though
they didn't call itbrainstorming, but, lord, that's
what it was.
And, lord, help those who arelistening to this podcast to
begin to develop and utilize theprinciples that we've talked
about today, to help them tobrainstorm, to bring them into a
(28:45):
better situation, whether it bea complex problem they have, or
whether it is some kind of amarketing issue or a management
issue.
It could be an HR issue.
Whatever it may be, lord, youknow what they need.
Help them to have a good,productive Lord brainstorming
session.
Lord and Lord, we thank you forit.
(29:07):
We ask your blessings uponthese people, lord, that are
listening to this podcast.
In the name of Jesus Christ,amen and amen.
Well, again, thanks again somuch for listening to this
week's Christian BusinessConcepts podcast, and again I
just want to thank you so muchfor being a part and helping us
to grow the CBC community.
(29:28):
Help us to grow it.
We've got a lot more to do.
There's a lot more thingscoming.
I've got some things I want toshare with you in the future,
very near future, and socontinue to pray for us, and we
really appreciate that andappreciate your prayers and your
support.
And that's about all the timewe have for this week, and so
until next time, I just want youto remember that Jesus is Lord
(29:53):
and he wants you blessed.
Welcome to the Christian Business Concepts with
your host, harold Milby.
Christian Business Concepts isdedicated to guiding companies
and business owners in becomingeffective, efficient and
successful through God's Wordand godly principles.
Now, here's your host, haroldMilby.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Great job, kelly, and welcome everyone to this week's
Christian Business ConceptsPodcast.
I'm your host, harold Milby,and each week we discuss
biblical business principles andhow that these principles can
help you have true godly success.
You know, we talk about all ofthe business topics that are,
(00:40):
you know, in the news today andare talked about today, and then
how the Word of God has directprinciples that can be applied
to those business topics.
And, as every week, I alwayspray and ask that you will be
encouraged, that you'll beenlightened and that you'll be
empowered by what you hear todayin this podcast.
(01:02):
Now, be sure to help us growthe CBC community by sharing
this podcast with four or fiveother people and be sure to post
the link.
You can put the link to thispodcast on a Facebook page Not a
page, but you can post it onyour Facebook page and you can
(01:27):
post it also on a LinkedIn pagethat you may have.
So if you'd help us do that,help us grow this community.
We're excited about the so manypeople that listen to the
podcast every week and itcontinues to grow, and every
week I try to give a big shoutout to certain countries or
(01:47):
cities.
This week I want to give a bigshout out to the United Kingdom,
you know, because they, acrossthe pond there, have done such a
great job of getting the wordout.
There's so many people that aredownloading the podcast in the
United Kingdom and we're sothankful for you, we pray for
you and we pray for theChristian businesses there in
(02:09):
the United Kingdom as well asaround the world, because this
podcast is downloaded in almost30 different countries and we're
excited about that and humbledby that, I might say, too.
Now in this week's businessspotlight, I want to mention a
company.
They're an internationalcompany.
They are in Australia, they'rein Canada, they're in South
(02:35):
Africa and others but the nameof the company is Dayspring
Cards Dayspring Cards.
They are a greeting cards andgift company.
They are a wholly-ownedsubsidiary of Hallmark, but
Dayspring operates with adifferent mission.
They operate with a mission tospread hope and encouragement
(02:59):
through what they consider to beChrist-inspired messages in
their gifts and in their cards.
They were founded in the US,but they have an international
distribution network, retailpartnerships all over the world,
and they sell journals andother gifts with Christian
(03:19):
themes, and the products aresold through a lot of bookstores
, christian bookstores,non-christian bookstores, online
platforms, and a lot of theiremphasis is on messages of faith
, on messages of love andbiblical encouragement.
Dayspring collaborates with alot of local churches and
(03:42):
ministries to distributeinspirational material as well.
They are partners withCompassion International to
support child sponsorshipprograms through their product
sales.
And so today's spring we saykeep up the good work.
(04:02):
You're a great example of aChristian not just a
Christian-owned, but aChristian-run company, and we
appreciate you.
Thank you, keep up the goodwork.
Now, you know, as Christianbusiness leaders, we are called
to be good stewards of ourtalents and our resources and
(04:24):
we're to be very wise aboutthose things.
We need to seek innovativesolutions, but not just any
solutions, but solutions thatare God-centered, faith-centered
and that serve others.
And today I want to talk aboutbrainstorming.
Now, I know that brainstormingisn't specifically mentioned in
(04:47):
the Bible.
I get that, but there are somany principles in the Bible
that are used in brainstormingand can be, and it surprises me
in business the number ofcompanies that don't practice
brainstorming.
You know, brainstorming,brainstorming, is a great
process to generate a lot ofgreat ideas, either individually
(05:12):
or collectively.
A lot of the things that I'vedone over my career and I
continue to do that is, I sitdown and either I'll have a
brainstorming session justmyself, or I will have a
brainstorming session justmyself, or I will have a
brainstorming session withpeople such as board members,
other people that are involvedin this work and some of the
(05:34):
other ministries that we'reinvolved in, and it's a great
tool.
It's a great tool for problemsolving, it helps you to make
great plans, it helps you tobring about innovation, but
there's just not very manybusinesses that practice this
art of what I would callbrainstorming, and it really, if
(05:56):
you're a Christian business,you're missing out if you don't
incorporate a greatbrainstorming session from time
to time in your operations.
There, I think you're missingout.
And so today we're going todiscuss how to first understand
the importance of brainstormingin leadership and in business,
(06:17):
and next we're going to learnhow to learn about these
practical techniques forindividuals and groups.
When we're talking aboutbrainstorming, we're also going
to learn how to apply Christianvalues as we're fostering this
creativity, and then we're goingto provide some very actionable
(06:42):
steps and some activities tobegin to implement really good
brainstorming in your workplace.
So let's get started withlaying a biblical foundation.
As I said, you know,brainstorming the word
brainstorming is not in theBible and I get that.
But brainstorming reflectsGod's call to seek wisdom and
(07:07):
creativity.
You know, ephesians 2 and 10says for we are God's handiwork,
created in Christ Jesus to dogood works which God prepared in
advance for us to do.
That's Ephesians 2.10.
So when we engage our minds andwe are collaborating with
(07:27):
others, we really honor God'sdesign for creativity and
community.
So let me just give you acouple of examples right off the
bat.
So in Exodus 18, I reallyencourage you to read that but
this is Jethro, who is Moses'father-in-law.
(07:50):
They have left Egypt with allthe children of Israel, about 5
million people, and they leftEgypt.
And so Jethro was really kindof taking an eye and watching
Moses and watching how heoperates.
And so he goes to Jethro.
I mean, jethro goes to Mosesand he basically tells Moses
(08:14):
dude, I've been watching you andyou're going to wear yourself
out, you're going to burn outbecause you can't do everything.
You cannot be the person thatdoes everything.
So Jethro, in my mind, had abrainstorming session.
So what does he tell Moses to doin Exodus chapter 18?
Well, what he said was is hesaid delegate authority to other
(08:37):
capable men.
He said find you rulers of tens, rulers of fifties, rulers of
hundreds and rulers of thousands, and then let those people take
a lot of the things off of yourplate and then you only have to
deal with those things thatonly you can deal with.
Now I'm paraphrasing.
That's not the words the Biblesays, but if you read Exodus,
(09:00):
chapter 18, that's what he does,that's what he tells Moses, and
so that comes along and itreally helps Moses that he would
have wore himself out becausehe was trying to do everything.
I've seen that happen inchurches with pastors, you know,
because the pastors are doingeverything.
Big mistake, because eventually, first of all, a pastor, a
person, first of all a pastor, aperson cannot manage more than
(09:24):
about 75 people.
So if your church is biggerthan 75, you're going to wear
your pastor out if he's the onlyone doing things.
So it's very important tounderstand.
But that was a brainstormingsession.
Then you have in 1 Kings 12,after the death of King Solomon,
(09:44):
rehoboam was his son and hetakes over as king from King
Solomon and he goes and gets theadvice from both the older,
more experienced advisors, andthen he gets advice from his
younger advisors, youngercontemporaries, we can say it
(10:05):
that way.
And so the old men gave himsome really good advice and he
told them to be lenient and toserve the people, but the
younger men advised him to beharsh and to lay down the law.
And so Rehoboam chose to dowhat the younger crowd was
(10:25):
advising him to do theinexperienced people and it led
to a big split in the kingdom,in the Israeli kingdom, and so
you had Israel, and then you hadJudah, and a couple of tribes
were following Judah, and thatsplit Israel because he didn't
listen.
Now, that's not what I want tofocus on.
(10:46):
What I want to focus on is howthat he met with these
counselors and they brainstormedand they talked about what they
should do, and you had onegroup saying one thing, one
group saying another, and he hadto make a choice.
But it was a brainstormingsession.
So what's the importance ofbrainstorming?
Let's look at a few things.
(11:07):
I think that brainstorming isessential for innovation because
I think it generates a lot ofcreative solutions.
We talk about a lot ofchallenges in business today and
in the world today, but at thesame time, I think good
brainstorming will help youinnovate.
I think it's good for problemsolving.
(11:30):
You know, that's how I solvemost problems that I've had in
my career whether it has been asa vice president, whether it
has been as a regional salesrepresentative over the years,
whatever it may have been when Irun into some complex problems,
complex issues, even ethicaldilemmas or financial
(11:52):
constraints, because thosethings come into play.
But when you begin to getpeople together and you have
brainstorming sessions, youbegin to have ways to solve
those problems.
Another thing I think it does isit helps to build teams.
It really helps to create thisunity, this feeling of
(12:13):
collaboration.
It really reflects the biblicalprinciple that you find in
Proverbs 27, 17, where it saysiron sharpens iron, and so
another man sharpens anotherman's countenance.
But that's what you're doing.
You're trying to sharpen theedge a little bit and I think
(12:36):
when you have people around youand you guys have brainstorming
events, it really does helpsharpen the blade, so to speak.
Right, it also helps you with alot of strategic planning.
It helps you set goals, ithelps you plan events, it helps
you to design different thingsthat's needed.
And then it also creates a lotof spiritual growth as well.
(13:00):
You know, it encourages a lotof prayerful discernment.
You know, because, what youwant to do is make sure that the
ideas that you come up with inthese brainstorming things that
they align, that they align withGod's purpose.
So you want to make sure ofthat.
You know the guy who startedDomino's Pizza, tom Monaghan.
(13:24):
You know he said one time hesaid I sometimes compare my
brainstorming on paper to thedrilling of oil wells.
The only way to strike oil isto drill a lot of wells.
So he's talking about getting alot of ideas when you're doing
brainstorming.
So you have individualbrainstorming right, and when
(13:46):
you do that, that gives you theopportunity to really go deep
and have a lot of focusedreflection.
It's great for personal visionsetting.
You know, getting that visiondetailed out.
It gives you a lot ofopportunity for really just some
initial ideas.
It helps you to generate thoseinitial ideas.
(14:09):
It also enables a lot of leadersto seek God's guidance in the
quietness and the solitude youget alone, as Jesus used to do.
He would get alone in prayer alot more than what you realize
when you read the Gospels.
You'll see it, look for it andyou'll see it.
But a good example of that isMark 1, and around verse 35, you
(14:32):
can look that up and it'sreally good to have individual
brainstorming, especially whenthere's maybe some time
constraints and it really kindof limits your timing of having
a big group brainstormingsession.
But then when you do have groupbrainstorming sessions, that
gives you the opportunity to geta lot of different perspectives
(14:54):
.
It really fosters a lot ofcreativity, a lot of creativity.
You get a lot of collectivewisdom, creativity, a lot of
creativity.
You get a lot of collectivewisdom.
And the Bible talks about thatin 1 Corinthians 12, verses 12
through 14.
It really builds team cohesionand I've seen that in my career.
(15:14):
It encourages people tocontribute and it helps you to
keep everybody focused onservant leadership.
And it's really if you've gotsome complex problems or complex
projects, you want to have agroup brainstorming session.
You know it's just likeorganizing.
(15:35):
You know a new product categoryor whatever it may be, but you
want to be able to do that as agroup.
So let's talk about a fewtechniques for individual
brainstorming.
So why again do we needindividual brainstorming?
Because it allows you again todeeply reflect.
(15:57):
You get free from all theexternal influences and you get
to seek God's wisdom alone.
So it's really good, as I said,for generating the initial
ideas.
But it also helps you toclarify your goals, and maybe
you've got some leadershipchallenges and so you can't have
this collectively with yourleadership team.
(16:17):
So what are some of thosetechniques?
Well, first of all, this one Ihave used many, many times.
It's called mind mapping.
Let I have used many, manytimes.
It's called mind mapping.
Let me say it again mindmapping.
So what is that?
Well, it kind of helps you tocreate this visual diagram.
That kind of helps you toorganize your thoughts around a
(16:40):
singular creative idea or asingular idea.
So you have the one idea right,and so what you're going to do,
we'll kind of look at that asit would be like you put in the
very center of your paper, you'dput that central idea and write
(17:01):
it in that circle, and then youbegin to draw branches out from
that, lines out from that withsmaller circles that have
related ideas to that.
It has related ideas, and thenyou can even have branches out
from that to have even moredetailed ideas and sub-related
(17:26):
ideas to those ideas, and youcan just branch off.
It looks like a big family treeand that's a great way to
brainstorm, because you can putthese ideas, circle them and
then draw a line to where theyfall and where they should be.
And you can use colors, you canuse symbols to highlight
priorities, but I would alwaysencourage you to begin with
(17:49):
prayer.
Ask God for a lot of creativity.
Lord, inspire me with ideas toserve you.
So that's one way of doing that.
As far as for an individualbrainstorming session, then
there's something called freewriting.
Free writing it's where youjust write continuously.
(18:12):
Give yourself 15 minutes, forexample.
Give yourself 15 minutes and,without taking the time to
really edit anything, you juststart writing down ideas.
Don't worry about if it'sspelled ideas, don't worry about
if it's spelled right, Don'tworry about if you articulate it
exactly right.
You want to get the generalconcept of the idea.
The key is that you flow inyour thoughts and you're just
(18:32):
writing furiously.
You just write everything.
Write everything that comes tomind as you're dealing with
whatever it is that the subjectis, and then I would really
reflect on the Word of God,reflect on Scripture, like
Psalms 32 and 8 talks about.
Before writing, before you startthis idea session with just
(18:57):
what we call free writing, andthen, after you get this done,
then you start to review andhighlight, take a highlighter
and highlight certain thingsthat you've written down.
Now I use the computer so Itype it all out.
I'm not the fastest typer inthe world, I'm not the slowest,
I type pretty well, but I justtype it out and then I go back
(19:19):
and highlight it, maybe changethe color of the font or put it
in bullet points.
But first I just start withfree writing and so I do that
from time to time.
And then there's somethingcalled the scamper method and
I've not really dealt with thattoo much.
It is one of the methods thatsome people use, but it just
kind of you use prompts, if Ican say that.
(19:40):
But you use prompts if I cansay that you want to put words
down like substitute, combine,adapt, modify.
You know, put the wordeliminate, put the word reverse
and use these as prompts to comeup with these ideas in your
(20:01):
brainstorming session.
And you know it works reallygood with a topic, a specific
topic, and you can do that.
So you choose a topic and thenyou provide these or apply these
scamper questions, what we callscamper questions.
For example, can we substitute?
(20:21):
There's the word substitute Canwe substitute a guest speaker
with maybe a member-leddevotional if we're talking
about a nonprofit organization.
Can we combine meetings withother projects?
And you list ideas for each ofthose prompts, but you start
(20:41):
with the word that you use tocreate the question and you just
need to pray for discernment tomake sure that your ideas align
.
And then, of course, you need tospend time in prayerful
reflection.
We've talked about this.
Find your quiet space, pray,pray for wisdom, write down
(21:02):
ideas that the Lord begins toshare with you.
I've had my wife have the Lordwake her up in the middle of the
night To write down ideas thatGod plants in her.
She has, I know, in one case inparticular, god woke her up at
3 am.
I was struggling, I was tryingto figure out how to handle a
situation and it was with theowner of the company, my boss,
(21:26):
the CEO, and God gave my wifethe exact words to say and those
were the exact words I used andit really created a
breakthrough for me.
But if you have prayerfulreflection, god will speak to
you.
So you want to make sure thatyou set a clear goal, to make
sure you define the problem,define what the objective is
(21:50):
before you start brainstorming,and you can do that.
Get specific and then eliminateany kind of distractions, get a
quiet place, go somewhere.
A lot of you could utilize yourlibrary.
The Free Public Library isgreat in the US there's many of
them that are really nice andthey have study rooms where you
can get alone and be quiet.
(22:11):
Sometimes, get away out of theoffice and just do that.
I've been places where I go tothe park and I sit there in the
park and I have a notebook and anotepad and I just jot down
ideas and then you just want torefine those ideas as you go
along.
Now, what about group?
What about group brainstorming?
Because that really harnessesthese really diverse kind of
(22:34):
perspectives.
It gives you a lot ofopportunity for collaboration
and it really kind of reflectsthis biblical principle of unity
in the body of Christ that youfind in 1 Corinthians 12, around
verse 12.
And it's great for planning bigevents.
It's great for solving complexproblems or developing really
(22:56):
competitive situations orprojects.
Proverbs 15.22 says plans failfor lack of counsel, but with
many advisors they succeed.
So that's very important tounderstand.
That's a great principle.
So what can we do?
Well, there's classicbrainstorming, where you just
get a group of people and thenyou just start letting the ideas
(23:18):
flow, just let them flow, letthem flow.
You have five to ten people.
You write down everything.
Make sure beforehand you set aclear goal here's what we're
trying to do and make sure youset these rules.
No criticism.
Every idea is welcome and youbuild or springboard I like to
use the word springboard off ofother ideas, because sometimes
(23:39):
you get a bad idea, but that badidea gives you a springboard
into some really good ideas.
So you don't want to judgepeople, you don't want to
criticize, you want it to justflow freely.
Use either a big whiteboard.
They also make these bigtablets.
(23:59):
They're huge but they're likesticky notes and you can just
peel them off and stick them onthe wall, and I kind of like
that method.
You can do round-robinbrainstorming where each person
individually contributes oneidea and then it goes to another
person.
They get another turn, theygive an idea, go to the next
(24:21):
person, and then you can justkeep going around, going around
and going around and do thatsame thing.
So you just sit in a circle andagain you state the goal what's
the goal here?
And then each person shares oneidea each time it comes around
to them, and you want to do thatthree to five times.
You know, go around there andyou know I would begin in those
(24:42):
sessions with like a devotional.
You know the Bible talks aboutin Galatians, chapter 5, it says
serve one another humbly inlove.
So you want to encourage people, to encourage others.
So, anyway, the next is what wecall brain writing.
You know, members basicallywrite ideas individually and
(25:05):
then they share with the teamand they build on them.
And it's really good for peoplewho are a little bit more quiet
.
They're afraid to really speakout, so let them do it in
private and then bring it to ameeting so you can do that.
The other is make sure that youuse again the brain mapping.
(25:26):
That's still a great tool.
It's a good way to do it.
So what are some tips forsuccess, for brainstorming?
Well, first of all, make sureyou create a safe space.
Again, I can't say this enoughDon't criticize.
Don't criticize the ideas anddon't let anybody on your team.
We don't laugh at people, youknow.
We just take the idea.
(25:47):
The whole idea of brainstormingis get as many ideas as you can
on paper or on a whiteboard orwherever you're doing this to a
computer.
Get as many ideas as you can onpaper or on a whiteboard or
wherever you're doing this to acomputer Get as many ideas as
you can and then go back andrefine them, add to it,
springboard off of them.
And then you want to make sureyou have a facilitator.
You need one person that leads.
It could be you, maybe you wantto use a vice president or a
(26:08):
department head, whatever butyou need somebody to be the
facilitator.
Make sure everybody keeps ontime, make sure you enforce the
rules, guide that session along,because if not, you'll get into
a lot of rabbit trails.
Don't allow that to happen.
And then begin and end yoursessions with prayer.
That's key because you want toseek God's guidance and unity
(26:31):
and use as many visual tools asyou can Whiteboards, the big
sticky notepads I said any kindof digital platforms.
There's tons of those out there.
So I just want to encourage youto do brainstorming.
It is truly, truly a tremendousway to do things within your
(26:52):
organization or your business tohelp you get through a lot of
issues that come up in anyorganization.
You know, another book I wouldencourage you to read would be
the Creative Leader by Ed Young,or another book is Think Better
by Tim Herson.
He'll give you some additionalstrategies on top of that.
(27:14):
Two good books there, by twogood authors.
So you know, brainstorming, Ibelieve, is a gift of God.
I believe it enables us toco-create solutions that really
reflect his wisdom.
And, as Christian businessleaders, we need to approach
brainstorming with humility andprayer and a heart to serve.
(27:35):
You know, proverbs 16, 3reminds us commit to the Lord
whatever you do, and he willestablish your plans.
Let your ideas that you come upwith in these brainstorming
sessions really shine.
Shine out for his glory.
Lord, we come before you rightnow in the name of Jesus.
(27:57):
Lord, we thank you for everyonethat's listened to this podcast.
Now, lord, they're all atdifferent levels, different
levels of leadership, differentlevels of business or
organizations, but they're notall the same.
They're all different.
But, lord, help them to see thepower of brainstorming.
Help them to see that, lord,you are a creative God, you're a
(28:20):
God of wisdom and, lord, we seeso many examples throughout the
Word of God of how people usebrainstorming techniques, though
they didn't call itbrainstorming, but, lord, that's
what it was.
And, lord, help those who arelistening to this podcast to
begin to develop and utilize theprinciples that we've talked
about today, to help them tobrainstorm, to bring them into a
(28:45):
better situation, whether it bea complex problem they have, or
whether it is some kind of amarketing issue or a management
issue.
It could be an HR issue.
Whatever it may be, lord, youknow what they need.
Help them to have a good,productive Lord brainstorming
session.
Lord and Lord, we thank you forit.
(29:07):
We ask your blessings uponthese people, lord, that are
listening to this podcast.
In the name of Jesus Christ,amen and amen.
Well, again, thanks again somuch for listening to this
week's Christian BusinessConcepts podcast, and again I
just want to thank you so muchfor being a part and helping us
to grow the CBC community.
(29:28):
Help us to grow it.
We've got a lot more to do.
There's a lot more thingscoming.
I've got some things I want toshare with you in the future,
very near future, and socontinue to pray for us, and we
really appreciate that andappreciate your prayers and your
support.
And that's about all the timewe have for this week, and so
until next time, I just want youto remember that Jesus is Lord
(29:53):
and he wants you blessed.
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