Keith Harmeyer at the Presentation Summit 2015

Keith Harmeyer delivered the Tuesday afternoon keynote at the Presentation Summit in New Orleans on September 29th, 2015. On the same day, the morning keynote was delivered by Guy Kawasaki who mentioned that it's best to be the first person to speak in the morning. And yes, Keith did start with that observation! Did he manage to overcome that limitation? Let's just say that after Keith's 45 minutes were over, you probably wondered why it ended in just 15 minutes? Only your watch had a different story to share!

Keith started with a quote:

"All achievements, all earned riches, have their beginning in an idea.”
—Napoleon Hill

Keith then shared some thoughts:

When was the last time you had a great idea?

I'll tell you more about ideas.

Keith then introduced himself: "Before advertising, I was a professional singer. In my life, I've had no formal training in creative writing, marketing, innovative thinking, and idea generation. But somehow I managed to do it all for 20 years."

So how did Keith manage it all? His answer: ideas!

Some more thoughts from Keith:

Ideas are the most important things we have today.

We live in a world obsessed with innovation.

If you do not innovate, you become irrelevant.

To put forth his thoughts further, Keith explored Kodak as an example. At one point of time, Kodak owned 90% of the US photographic film market. We all know that the digital photography revolution almost finished the photographic film industry. But what many don't know is that it was again Kodak, who invented the digital camera! But they did not do much their invention -- and the rest is history!



And then Keith shared some more awesome thoughts:

Change is the only constant.

Today we are all under continuous pressure to reinvent ourseves and the value we deliver.

Consumers expect constant innovation.

Everyone is expected to show up at the table with solutions that we have to deliver -- otherwise someone else will deliver these innovatons and solutions.

Idea is the seed of innovation.

Ideas have become the currency of successs.

Ideas will differentiate you from others.

Other skills are necessary but if you do not have good ideasto begin with, those skills will not be useful.

Ideas are helpful to create better presentations.

So how do you make sure that your presentation is the best presentation your audience has ever seen? The only way to win the game is to change the game. If you're creative enough! Why creativity? Because ideas will require creativity! The question is whether you creative enough to win the game? So are you creative?

Keith then said, "In fact, everyone is creative. In fact, everyone is highly creative, as creative as Steve Jobs!"

Some more thoughts that he shared:

A game-changing idea can come from anyone, at any time.

High-end recruiters agree that creativity is the most important leadership quality for success in business. They place creativity higher than integrity.

You don't need any artistic talent to deliver great ideas that can be turned into success.

Robert Ludlum, who wrote 27 books did not consider himself a good writer.

Keith then talked about five traits of highly creative thinkers:

1. Curiosity
2. Imagination
3. Intuition
4. Perception
5. Playfulness

if you have these qualiti=0-you have all the traits required to be creative and generate ideas. so what gets in our way. his boss said i need to ee your bad ideas just in case there is something good in here. 1. trying way too hard with "good"ideas. 2. afraid of criticism from others 3. self judgement 4. overly serious when tackling the challenge common impedimens of idea generation self-doubt self criticism fear of judgement being overly serious we get in the way of ourselves when it is the time to generate ideas. so what ca n we do -- it boils down to one key concept: manage your divergent and convergent thinking processeses. thaty sounds so crazy - during thinking ideas, we go in two different directions. divergent is thinking 360 degress outside converging is thinking inside ourselves polar opp, like ying yang -- both are important. when you are reasy to generate ideas: divergent thinking gets you many ideas suspend your judgemt quantity over quality go for the wild, edgy ideas - crazy is beter han a boring idea anything is possiblew there is no bad idea. when you ae finoished, switch tro conberent: critical judgent evaluation of ideas selection of best ideas divergent casts the largest net and getting all the catch possible. convergent ios choosing the best catch. warning: do not mix thinking processes (div and convergent). -------- brainstorming -- group brainstorming. tips: 1. manage the group's divergent and convergent thinking -- susupend judgement. do not criticise. create a judgent free environment 2. contribute all ideas -- fearlessly. if no one is ready to say something crazy, you won;t get a game changer 3. encourage others to sare ideas. it's amazing what happens when everyone in the room is willing to say somethingstupis 4. look for opportunities to help, improve, evolve of build on the deas of the others -- it's not rude, it is helpful. 5. become an idea catalyst -- be the big mouthin the room -- not in a negative buta n energetic way. be an active voacl participant. 6. don;t take yoursef so dan seriously. generatig ideas must be fun. it should be the most fun in your imaginatin - to set your criosity open. give yourself permission to have fun. -------------- let's give it a try idea sprinting 12 ideas in 3 minutes are you creatibe - yes' are are you creative, like steve jobs -- yes you are not special sine everyone is creative -- yes

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