The genius of your Ideation talent begins with your love of ideas and the way you so quickly learn new ideas, concepts and principles. But you are not passive. It is as if you take ideas and then begin spinning them around in your mind. With each new idea you learn, you tend to think about it over and over – – – spinning it around with the many other ideas you already have. e result of this thinking, turning, and spinning around of new ideas with what you already know does two things. First, you generate new connections and insights about ideas and their implications. Second, the spinning of your ideas often results in new ideas. Therefore, the genius of the Ideation talent is the creativity of generating new ideas and insights

At your best (Balcony):

• improves on the existing, learns quickly, agile mind

At your worst (Basement):

• serendipitous, lacks follow-through, creates more work

Ideation may be one of your signature themes if…

• Ideas fascinate you.
• The bizarre intrigues you.
• You are always looking for connections.
• You are drawn to concepts that help explain events in life.
• Learning more about the world through new enlightenments excites you.
• You are often labeled creative, original, conceptual and smart.
  • Source: Let’s Talk Personality

A more detailed explanation from Gallup:

You are fascinated by ideas. What is an idea? An idea is a concept, the best explanation of the most events. You are delighted when you discover beneath the complex surface an elegantly simple concept to explain why things are the way they are. An idea is a connection. Yours is the kind of mind that is always looking for connections, and so you are intrigued when seemingly disparate phenomena can be linked by an obscure connection. An idea is a new perspective on familiar challenges. You revel in taking the world we all know and turning it around so we can view it from a strange but strangely enlightening angle. You love all these ideas because they are profound, because they are novel, because they are clarifying, because they are contrary, because they are bizarre. For all these reasons you derive a jolt of energy whenever a new idea occurs to you. Others may label you creative or original or conceptual or even smart. Perhaps you are all of these. Who can be sure? What you are sure of is that ideas are thrilling. And on most days this is enough.

Action Items for This Theme

• Seek work in which you will be paid for your ideas, such as marketing, advertising, journalism, design, or new product development. Find work in which you will be given credit for your ideas.
• Yours is the kind of mind that bores quickly, so make small changes in your work or home life. Experiment. Play mental games with yourself. All of these will help keep you stimulated.
• Seek brainstorming sessions. With your abundance of ideas, you will make these sessions more exciting and more productive.
• Schedule time to read, because the ideas and experiences of others can become your raw material for new ideas. Schedule time to think, because thinking energizes you.
• Discuss your ideas with other people. Their responses will help you keep refining your ideas.

Be ready to:

• Finish your thoughts and ideas before communicating them. Lacking your Ideation strength, others might not be able to “join the dots” of an interesting but incomplete idea, and thus might dismiss it.
• Partner with someone with a strong Activator theme. This person can push you to put your ideas into practice. This kind of exposure can only be good for your ideas.
• Partner with someone with a strong Analytical theme. This person will question you and challenge you, therefore strengthening your ideas.
  • The Clifton StrengthsFinder and the 34 Clifton StrengthsFinder theme names are protected by copyright of Gallup Inc., 2000. All rights reserved.