CliftonStrengths® defines the Ideation® theme as being “fascinated with ideas. They are able to find connections between seemingly disparate phenomena.”
You love to brainstorm
This theme kind of speaks for itself 🙂 You will ask questions and throw out ideas, sometimes too fast for the people around you. For some, you create overwhelmed with all the ideas you offer.
This is my #10 and one of my dominant themes. When I look at friends who have Ideation® in their Top 5, I see the difference in intensity. I can turn it down and zip it; they often can’t.
You love to brainstorm and be with people that want to have fun without ego. To me, that’s key, and my Positivity® theme piping in. It has to be fun for me if I’m in a group. My experience is that brilliant ideas often are born out of silly ones, so a free-flowing and open environment is key.
You love to play outside the box
You thrive when you have the opportunity to use your creativity to inspire and energize yourself and others.
In fact, one of your talents is to take what you have and shift the perspectives by looking at it from different angles and offering fresh ideas.
You love to come up with new ideas and hate repetition and doing what you’ve already done.
You need the freedom to explore
This theme has a lot of similarities with the fluidity of Adaptability®. It’s very much now in the moment and on the fly that ideas come when you’re in flow in a conversation or sitting on your own thinking about stuff.
Playing without constraints, limitations, or a ceiling of how far out you can go is another need that you have.
Reading is another source of ideas; tapping into other people’s genius can energize you and stimulate more ideas that you hadn’t thought about before.
Quantum leap growth
I think one reason why personal and business growth has appealed to me is that my Ideation® gets sparked. Whether I’m listening to others sharing or reading an article or book, I get to tap into new realms and perspectives.
Ideation® is a theme that moves forward, one or several ideas at a time. To me, this theme feels very spontaneous.
Quantum leaps all start from an idea.
You may want to have a notebook nearby or use the one on your phone, where you jot down ideas. I’ve often found that when I’m on my own, they will hit when I’m doing something like driving or working out and don’t have the ability to write.
The talk-to-text option on your phone helps me in those situations.
Stay curious and keep exploring your ideas in ways that are intriguing to you. Create a game around it, and come up with ten ideas that can contribute to a situation you’re in right now. The next one could be the one that sparks something even greater after all.
Do you have Ideation® as one of your dominant talents? Do you find that you have more ideas than you can handle? Please comment below; I’d love to know.
Are you curious about what your talents might be? CLICK HERE for more information about the CliftonStrengths® Assessment or HERE for the BP10™ Assessment.
Lastly, visit Gallup’s YouTube channel for more information on the CliftonStrengths® theme of Ideation® HERE.
