You’re a
brainstorming kind of a guy. I can see that about you.
You’re often in meetings where the boss says, “Okay team,
let’s run this up the flagpole and see what we get.”
After that, everyone breaks loose with their ideas. Some
strategic. Some idiotic. It typically takes a lot of the latter to arrive at
the former.
Brainstorming sessions happen in less formal ways as well.
If you’re a family man, you’ll often encounter impromptu brainstorming session on
Saturday mornings. You gather your wife and kids and say, “Hey troops, what do
you want to do today?”
Your 9-year-old daughter will want to go to Disneyland. Or
watch TV and eat massive amounts of junk food.
Your 4-year-old son will want to go for a hike. Or watch TV
and eat massive amounts of junk food.
Your wife? She simply wants you to take the kids off her
hands so she can relax for a moment.
Or … wait, is that just my family?
So what do you do? How
do you truly arrive at the best ideas ever? If you’re leading the brainstorming session, how do you
instruct your team to field all requests while letting their minds go to truly
creative places and arrive at strategic solutions?
If you’re in the pack, how do you become a team player when
your leader has just asked you to think big?
Enter a remarkably simple yet highly effective phrase.
yes … and
I learned the technique of “yes … and” awhile back in a
leadership seminar taught by Craig McNair Wilson, a former Disney imaginer who went
on to be a successful corporate coach.
To use the phrase effectively, everyone in a brainstorming
session needs to be in on the plan. So it may require some work on your behalf
to introduce the idea to your boss, team, or family.
Once introduced, the big idea is that whatever is said is
followed up with the two words yes … and. Meaning every idea is met
with an agreement, (at least in passing), and a follow-up. No idea is dead in
the water, no matter how outlandish or offbeat it initially seems.
It’s that simple.
It’s that strategic.
Put yourself in a corporate
boardroom. Maybe you work for NIKE, and CEO Phil Knight has just asked his
team to brainstorm ways to market a new, fun running shoe to a children’s
demographic. Phil calls for ideas.
PERSON 1: Maybe we could host
parties?
PERSON 2: Yes … and, maybe the
parties could have cool themes that really attract this demographic.
PERSON 3: Yes … and, maybe one of
the themes is a luau.
PERSON 4: Yes … we’ll host luaus in
each city in our major markets … and, these will be no ordinary luaus
either. Maybe our luaus feature dinosaurs and princesses—two things this age
group completely adores.
PERSON 5: Yes … luaus with
dinosaurs and princesses and door prizes and DJs and bouncy
houses and jugglers and online treasures for the kids who can’t attend, and
celebrity endorsements along with major media support to advertise the events …
all leading back to our new shoe.
PHIL: Great work, team. Have an
outline on my desk by tomorrow.
That’s an oversimplification of the process, (and undoubtedly
NIKE’s marketing is more sophisticated than described), but it gives you an
idea of what might happen when using this technique. The two basic building
blocks for effective brainstorming are positive feedback and a continuation of
ideas. That way a team surfaces a truly unique solution to the problem.
With yes … and, a person can disagree
with an idea, sure. But instead of immediately shooting it down, he simply
leads the conversation in a new and engaging direction, like:
PERSON 6: Yes … and maybe another
idea to compliment the luaus would be soccer camps and skateboard clinics so we
position the new shoe more closely with athletics…
And the brainstorming session continues to flow.
Try it with your team.
Try it with your family.
And see what happens the next time you need to come up with
a great idea.
Question: What techniques do you use when you need to come up with good ideas? Do you ever find your creativity running low, if so, what do you do to refill your tank? What's an example of something creative you or your team recently dreamed up and implemented?
6 comments:
This is helpful, thanks. It's far too easy to just shoot people's ideas down, when instead go with them or see the kernal of brilliance that may be contained in them, then help develop them to get at something truly great.
Thanks Brandon.
Hi Marcus. Interesting. I find this pretty difficult when I think about it. I never want to disappoint anyone, and that makes it hard to make a decision. I also don't want to do something I really don't feel like doing. Somehow I think I am using this technique as well, without really saying it like "yes..and". When my girlfriend really wants to go into town to buy some new clothes (sigh...that will be long waits near the fitting room, reading e-books on my phone), I agree, and say "Alright! And maybe we can go to that bookstore nearby as well, and have some coffee afterwards?". We're both happy then. So I guess this technique works. I just never thought about it like this. Clever. Enjoy the rest of your week.
Yuri, you're a good man.
Marcus: As a family of two, we will do a short version of troubleshooting as to what to do and where to eat on Valentines day. We do not travel as far from home as we did when younger, but I am thankful for the ability for Lynne and I to still get around and function fairly well. At college, we just completed an example of troubleshooting as about 25 of us in groups of 5 had to complete two different requests and submit to our supervisor. The second request was how we could improve our service to students. We came up with We sorted through information from the first semester and offered a summetion from our group when time was up. Many ideas were offered but we shortened the list to four suggestions. I will ask her to pass along the total list from the 5 groups as a later time. I have participated in this process many times while teaching or counseling and it allows us to offer suggestions that hopefully would be considered to improve the high school or college where I worked. Troubleshooting allows a small group, such as the four of us working with the Veterans, to improve information and efficieny in what our positions require.
Gary
Nicely said, Gary. Thank you.
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