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If you are serious about creativity and innovation, whether for yourself or your organisation, there is one basic principle you should accept: there is no such thing as a bad idea. There are, of course, ideas which you should not implement in their present form. They may seem like bad ideas to the uninitiated. They are not. They are simply ideas need further development. Such ideas in their original form may...
• be incomplete
• not solve the problem adequately
• be unclear as stated
• be morally, ethically or legally wrong
• be unsuitable for the present time, perhaps because
they involve a new, untested technology.
Let's call such ideas “premature ideas”. With a bit of work, many of them can be transformed into good, implementable ideas. When an employee or colleague comes to you with a premature idea, follow these three steps...
1. THINK about the idea for a moment. It's easy to reject an idea immediately because it sounds crazy. Maybe it's not. Maybe it's brilliant. Alternatively, it may simply be a premature idea. One thing you can be sure of: it's not a bad idea. Bad ideas do not exist.
2. COMPLIMENT the positive aspect or aspects of the idea. Every idea has something positive going for it. Find that positive aspect and highlight it.
3. CHALLENGE the idea owner to improve the idea. To do this, simply turn your concern about the idea into a question that poses a creative challenge. Such questions typically begin with “How [else] could you/we..?” or “How [else] might you/we..?” As a rather extreme example, imagine an overly enthusiastic
young marketing executive comes to you and says: “With their new product, the competition our outselling us by two to one. I think we should blow up their headquarters building. That will slow them down!”
Aside from making a mental note to have the a psychologist talk to the young executive about her destructive ideas, you should reply: “That's an interesting, if extreme, idea. I like the idea of slowing the competition down, but I am not sure I could condone such an approach. How else might we slow them down?”
Here you have complimented the idea's strong point, indicated a concern and have turned that concern into a challenge. Moreover, you have done some positive things for the marketing executive...
1. You have complimented her creativity and, as a result, have
encouraged her to continue being creative
2. You have indicated the positive and negative aspects of her idea
3. You have given her a new creative challenge and the motivation to take on the challenge.
Unfortunately, most of us would be inclined to respond to the marketing executive's idea with a statement like:
“you must be crazy!” or “that's a terrible idea!” The result of such statements would be humiliation, discouragement and demotivation. Very likely
that marketing executive would learn to keep future ideas – at least her more creative ideas to herself. Worse, if her colleagues learn of the rejection, they will also learn to keep ideas to themselves.
As I stated, the example given is an extreme one. But even in less extreme situations, do not call a premature idea a bad idea. Instead...
• Think
• Compliment
• Challenge
You'll find this simple approach results in more ideas, more motivated staff and a higher degree of innovation.
This article is from the Jan 2006 edition of Report 103. It is a complimentary weekly electronic newsletter from Bwiti bvba of Belgium (a jpb.com company: http://www.jpb.com).
Archives and subscription information can be found at http://www.jpb.com/report103/
Report 103 is edited by Jeffrey Baumgartner and is published on the first and third Tuesday of every month.
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