Grab a marker and hold it up in your fingers. What is it? Likely you answered that it’s a marker and then quickly questioned my intelligence. Before you write me off though, grab that marker and look again. This time use your imagination. What is it?



Grab a marker and hold it up in your fingers. What is it?

Likely you answered that it’s a marker and then quickly questioned my intelligence. Before you write me off though, grab that marker and look again. This time use your imagination. What is it?

It’s an arrow, a fishing pole, a weaponized spy instrument, or the leg of a make believe table. When you add your imagination, the sky’s the limit as to what this standard object can be or what it could accomplish.

Take this concept and grab your most recent negotiation paperwork. What is it?

Is it the standard agreement that is usually used at the bargaining table, or is it a creative piece of negotiating art that individualizes a profit solution for both you and your customer?

During the WIT 2013 Distributor/Vendor Conference in Dallas last week, speaker Dan Coleman stressed to the audience that new and novel thinking when negotiating contracts or solving business problems were imperative; but he cautioned that this doesn’t occur on its own.

“How do you generate new and novel when there isn’t any variance from the standard application that gets the job done?” he asked.

As founder of Excelsior Learning and author of “Bursts of Fresh-Squeezed Ideas,” Coleman challenged his audience to institute a daily idea quota, enhance creative negotiation approaches, and to break the mold on stagnant business processes.

Now, put the marker down and grab a pen and some paper. Think about the biggest business problem you’re currently facing and start brainstorming some off-the-wall solutions and write them down. Take time to do this every day and one day you might just look at that piece of paper and see the solution.

If you get stuck, grab a marker and ask again, “What is it?”