5 ways to kill an idea
Nigel Collins for Main Event Magazine
1. Laugh at it Works every time! It not only stops an idea in its track but will also stop the creative flow of the person who put it up in the first place.
No no no! It's really important, vital in fact, to do the opposite — to encourage ideas and not put them down. No matter how good or bad because ideas have a way of evolving and growing into something spectacular, and you don't want to stop that happening. Also, be really careful not to put down or laugh at the person creating idea either. You need to look at ways of creating a culture that supports and encourages creativity - not destroy it.
2. Judge it early In my opinion, this is where most people go wrong. As soon as someone comes up with an idea they judge it!
The process of generating ideas should be separated from the process of evaluating them. Why? Because as mentioned above, ideas have a habit of evolving and growing and if you start judging them and evaluating them as soon as they hit the table, they will never get a chance to breath life.
So separate the two processes of 'Blue-skying' (the free flowing and generating of ideas) and 'Evaluating' ideas.
3. Skip pre-production There's a danger in jumping straight in and banging out ideas with no clear objective or parameters.
You may still generate heaps of ideas but thankfully they won't be very useful.
Like an event, you need to spend time in pre-production clarifying your objectives and what the parameters are you need to work within. Otherwise your ideas will lack direction and just meander about serving no particular purpose. Let's face it, a good idea without a place in the world or without serving a purpose is not a good idea.
We want our idea to be workable and have value and the way to do that is to spend time clarifying what the purpose of the idea really is.
4. Only seeing it your way To kill an idea before it surfaces , you only need to embrace solo thinking and forget about collaboration. Creativity is all about seeing things differently and from different perspectives. So you need to tap into the collective wisdom and creativity of other people as well as see things through the eyes of others. Consider your client's, your supplier's and your stakeholder's point of view. Ask yourself how someone else would approach things - for instance how would Richard Branson or Steve Jobs do it?
5. Play it safe Ideas thrive on creative risk - so playing it safe and being risk adverse is a sure way to kill an idea.
The ironic truth is that in terms of creativity, the safest thing you can do is to take a risk and the riskiest thing you can do is play it safe. Therefore you need to create an organizational culture that allows creativity to thrive. Where people feel safe putting ideas on the table and where being creative and generating workable ideas is not only encouraged but expected.
Nigel Collin develops creative thinkers and companies through his unique thinking tools and experience. This article was published in the January 2009 edition of Main Event magazine. Visit www.nigelcollin.com.au or www.maineventmagazine.com.au, www.spicenews.com.au for more information.