1. If you can't find an answer to a problem try articulating it to yourself and then doing something else entirely. Letting the sub-conscious work away at it. A solution, or an idea may then appear, apparently spontaneously.
2. People are more likely to think well, and to share ideas, in informal surroundings. Particularly whilst sharing food and drink.
3. Changing the way people present (such as getting senior management to sit on bar stools for presentations to staff) can radically affect how the discussion goes.
4. It is not enough simply to bring together disparate elements and call them ideas. For them to be valuable their juxtaposition needs to trigger new significance.
5. There is a big difference between information and knowledge.
6. Facts on their own are not interesting. Computers can produce these. Human beings come into their own when we realise that one fact relates to another and we have an idea.
7. Increasing use of computers is mitigating against creativity, increasing information access rather than reflecting on knowledge.
8. In order to be creative one needs to be on a much slower time frame, with no distractions.
9. Brainstorming, and indeed committees are counterproductive to the pursuit of new ideas. One to one’s are better.
10. A sense of fun in ideas sharing sessions is important.