Top 10 Creativity Killers
Brainstorming is one of those English words, which is excessively being misused by most of us. Many of us think brainstorming is synonymous with “discussing” or “meeting”.
In most cases, when some one says, “let’s have a brainstorm session on this”, 90% of the time, what he/she really means is, “let’s meet and discuss about this”.
A discussion is a two way process, where we evaluate both arguments and counter arguments on the discussion topic. But, brainstorming is necessarily one way! When brainstorming, you have to switch off all the counter arguments. You see only one way out. That’s forward. No reverse gears!
Here is my list of top 10 creativity killer counter arguments you can expect, in these so-called brainstorming sessions. These are not in a particular order, and they are not specific for any industry.
1) It is not our policy to do it like that.
2) We have already invested a lot in some other projects. Any new idea should comply with them.
3) We tried it several times, but it didn’t work.
4) It’s not practical!
5) It will take a long time for us to implement that.
6) It’s too complicated. Customers won’t understand it.
7) It’s too simple. Can’t you think of something else?
8) We’ve been doing it this way for a long time, and we haven’t had a problem so far.
9) That requires major changes in our systems & procedures!
10) Ok. That’s a good idea. But, can’t we think of something better?
In most cases, when some one says, “let’s have a brainstorm session on this”, 90% of the time, what he/she really means is, “let’s meet and discuss about this”.
A discussion is a two way process, where we evaluate both arguments and counter arguments on the discussion topic. But, brainstorming is necessarily one way! When brainstorming, you have to switch off all the counter arguments. You see only one way out. That’s forward. No reverse gears!
Here is my list of top 10 creativity killer counter arguments you can expect, in these so-called brainstorming sessions. These are not in a particular order, and they are not specific for any industry.
1) It is not our policy to do it like that.
2) We have already invested a lot in some other projects. Any new idea should comply with them.
3) We tried it several times, but it didn’t work.
4) It’s not practical!
5) It will take a long time for us to implement that.
6) It’s too complicated. Customers won’t understand it.
7) It’s too simple. Can’t you think of something else?
8) We’ve been doing it this way for a long time, and we haven’t had a problem so far.
9) That requires major changes in our systems & procedures!
10) Ok. That’s a good idea. But, can’t we think of something better?
Have I missed anything? Do you have anything to add to this?
Great post! Here's another one that I get a lot:
ReplyDelete11) But that's not what we did last year!