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Brainstorming Part II: Appreciate What's New

9/16/2014

2 Comments

 
In our last Communication Capsule, we mentioned the benefits of kicking off brainstorming sessions with two minutes of silent writing before sharing ideas with the group, round-robin style, with no evaluation. This can lead to fresher, more creative ideas—but that won’t help your group if you or your colleagues tend to have a knee-jerk negative reaction to the new.

As Judith Glaser, who studies “conversational intelligence” notes—and as history has shown repeatedly—truly original ideas are often met with spontaneous rejection, precisely because they are alien to our current culture. (The founder of FedEx got a “C” for an academic paper outlining his idea for an overnight delivery service.) And rejection may mean that the idea’s creator feels rejected, and unlikely to contribute another new idea soon.

Step 3 of our brainstorming protocol is key: Instead of attacking and rejecting, all team members (again, silently and in writing) prioritize their top three actions— those they believe are most significant and doable. When each team member advocates for their top choices in round robin, input is shared by all—not just the first and the loudest. And the group focus remains on selecting the most positive solution—not rejecting the weirdest.


Please share your experience. Have you ever had an idea rejected because it was “too original?” How do you encourage colleagues to be more creative?  Join the conversation and click "comments" on our Community of Practice Forum
2 Comments
Merry Bauman link
9/16/2014 08:19:34 am

The way to get creative juices going in our company is to involve several age groups. That often means generations of the same family or related family. The older generation sometimes reject offhand an idea that comes from someone a lot younger, but the younger ones are actually doing the jobs that are affected by the ideas, and they are often very good. Eventually many have been implemented and done well. Fortunately we have some very smart and very creative younger team members, who really do know how to do something better. Getting the older ones to see the benefit is the struggle, but in most cases, it happens and if you can get them to think it was in any way partially their idea, you are in! lol Spoken as one of the older generation of course. I have no problem giving credit to the younger ones who come up with great ideas. I am grateful that they do. It gives me hope for the future. With up to four generations working here at once, it gets a bit interesting when they all try to agree on something. Sometimes it takes only someone seeing a function or idea with new eyes. One of my teenage grandsons came in to work one summer for a few days, and he saw the process that he was going to be doing in a different way. He did it his way, and the work was much more productive.
Getting everyone to speak up and to feel free to be creative is the most optimal way to have a really productive meeting. Being afraid to speak up for fear of rejection needs to be eliminated from the start. Making clear it is an open forum and that all ideas are important and will be considered - is vital.

Reply
Susan
9/17/2014 02:06:52 am

We agree: Not only do people support what they help to create, but also people who are doing the work often have insights that people managing the work don't see.

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  • Courses
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