Notes and news, insights and inspiration from the autonomous collective mind of GS.

One of the challenges we face as creative problem solvers is dropping our challenge-focused baggage and opening our minds to unique solutions. We all know the rules of a good brainstorm:

• Lots of ideas – quantity, not quality
• No judging!
• Odd, weird, unrealistic ideas welcome
• Combining ideas into new ideas also handy

Sounds easy, but often our creativity is held back by an all-too-adult awareness of the cold, hard reality our projects live in. The answer? Think like a kid.

My wife and I recently became leaders for our 2nd grade daughter's Destination Imagination team. If you haven't heard of DI (I hadn't), it's a fantastic afterschool program. Kids are put into small teams (about seven kids their own age), handed an open-ended challenge, and given four months to solve it together.

Leaders are allowed to guide, but not help. Kids need to solve it themselves. At the end of four months, kids present their ideas to judges and peers. Teams with really great solutions move up into regional, national, and global competitions.

DI's stated goal is to foster tomorrow’s leaders through experiences that teach creativity, teamwork, and problem solving. Three skills we all need everyday, regardless of age and occupation.

So, for the past five weeks I have been working with these seven amazing kids – guiding them through creative activities, watching them work towards creative solutions together, and teaching them how to brainstorm.

Here's what has been cool for me to watch. Working with kids in a brainstorm session is very different from working with adults. These kids get it. I don't have to remind them to not judge. I don't have to encourage them to be more weird, more wacky. They aren't worried about budget, or whose idea is whose.

And they never worry about what the client gonna think.

Instead, they rip through ideas faster than I can write them down. They get goofy, they giggle, they combine ideas into weirder ideas. And they don't worry about shouting out a dumb idea in front of their boss. The ideas they come up with are funny, creative, weird, and unique.

More importantly, they solve the problem.

I believe we are all born with the innate ability to be creative and think creatively. We don't start with barriers in place. We acquire them as we get older. They're taught to us as we grow into cautious, logical, practical adults.

Next time you need a creative solution to a pressing problem, ask yourself, "What would a seven-year-old think of?" Or, better yet, go ask a seven-year-old.

Watch DI kids in action.