Keep the ideas alive…

I witnessed an idea being destroyed recently — instantly crushed under the boot of judgment. It was an idea exposed outside of the cosy environment of an official ‘safe’ ideation session.

This made me think of the frameworks we like to place around ideas; the divergent/convergent thinking sequence described by the double-diamond model where ideas are required to be embraced and then refined. I’ve witnessed far too many ideas kicked out when they are presented without the ‘protection’ of an official divergent thinking session. Unhappily, I’ve probably been responsible for some of that kicking myself over the years.

Since an idea can happen at any time, and at inception they are both transient and fragile, I’m going to challenge myself to regard every moment as divergent unless ‘officially’ within a convergent session. And to do that, I think one of the core techniques of improv can be employed — “yes and…” — support the contributor, don’t “yes, but…” the idea into oblivion.

Even when somebody prefixes with “what do you think about [idea]…” , I’ll try to take a moment and ask them to “tell me more…” rather than instantly providing an opinion.

A final thought, when somebody trusts you with their new idea, use “yes, and…” to support them, but don’t take the idea from them. If it turns into something great then it’s pretty special that they trusted you to help.