Throw Out Your First 10 Ideas

Someone already thought of those…

Whenever I facilitate a brainstorm session for an organization, I follow a rule of having all the participants in the room scribble down every single idea they can think of within the first 5-10 minutes – and then throw them all away.

There are three reasons I do this:

ONE:
Someone else already thought of those ideas These ideas are the low hanging fruit. These are the easiest conclusions to reach, because you didn’t have to think too hard (or stretch too far) in order to come up with these solutions.

You want proof? Before you pitch that first crop of ideas, take one of the lists and read off the concepts aloud. Have everyone else in the room raise their hand if they have the same idea (or reasonable facsimile) on their own list. Have everyone draw a line through the idea on their list and then move to the next idea on the list. You typically won’t have any ideas remaining which don’t have a line drawn through it. If you DO, I’d bet someone didn’t hear you, didn’t understand the instructions, or feels the wording was different enough that they weren’t the same (they’re wrong. It’s the same.)

Need more proof? Ask the others in the room if THEY have any ideas left on their own list that weren’t crossed off. If…