When I began to facilitate creative sessions roughly fifteen years ago, I started keeping a list of phrases or reasons why ideas would die in brainstorms or immediately afterwards. For years, the list wasn't well-organised and some notes were patchy, but it didn't stop me from adding and adapting and editing. After sitting in a particularly heinous brainstorm a few days ago, I decided it was time to clean up and publish the list - if, for no other reason, than it was a bit of therapy for me.
An idea dies because:
1. It's killed by budget. Isn't it funny how someone in a brainstorm instantly becomes an accountant? Without any warning, they kill a particular idea because they know every cost, from every vendor, and in any way that it might be implemented. Another variation is the person who begins a brainstorm saying "I need a big idea - but I only have $1.289!"
2. It's destroyed by process. In other words, the weight of the organisation prevents the idea from living beyond the brainstorm. "Process" might either be internal politics ("Fine, but our department won't endorse it") or procedure / procurement ("They aren't an endorsed vendor").
3. It's - yet another - idea from the Loud Mouth. All organisations have the one prolific - and often polarising person - who's a well-spring of ideas. Yes, 90% of their ideas may be crazy (if not illegal). Sadly, this person is judged on the quality of the bad ideas instead of the brilliancy of their 10% of ideas.
4. It's damned by the Grim Reaper. I debated putting this reason first because - I think - it's the most common. The idea is shot to pieces by someone who religiously believes their singular purpose in life is to point out the flaws of everyone else's ideas without someone - anyone! - challenging them to be constructive.
5. Of lack of oxygen. Perhaps because of ridicule, shyness or fear of the Grim Repear, some people choose not to share their ideas outloud. Generally, the facilitator doesn't encourage them to speak up (and then protect them), or their ideas come after the brainstorm and there's no way to capture them post-meeting. Can you imagine the success of the organisation if these ideas could surfaced and nurtured?
6. It's mutilated by the seller to the buyer. Some people are simply incapable of packaging an idea to make it attractive to the buyer to purchase. More often than not, this also includes this person's lack of proper presentation skills. If I've learnt one thing, if you're not (overly) excited by your own ideas, the buyer will never buy.
6A. By PowerPoint. This is a subset of the previous point because many organisations rely upon PowerPoint as its primary communications system. Too bad people forget the mantra: PowerPoint is for communicating with visuals, not solely on bullet points.
6B. It's been sapped of its flavour. Sometimes a red-hot-salsa idea is generated that makes everyone stand back and think "Wow! Could you imagine what would happen if we did (that)?" And then, through the process of transferring it to paper, all of its flavour and spice has been removed - thus making the idea "vanilla."
7. By insufficient knowledge. In other words, people make assumptions when they don't have proper knowledge, and more often than not, they make assumptions about what a potential audience might feel about to react to a particular idea. isn't it even more galling when they aren't representative of the target audience? (This includes the type of people who read demographic reports about the target audience instead of meeting the actual person.)
8. Lack of courage or fear of risk. It's easy for the weight of an organisation to squeeze a person out of their creativity. It's downright shocking when the person has the audacity to ask: "Can you give me an idea that's 'out of the box' but not risky?" The answer is No. In the history of civilization, there has never been a brilliant idea without risk.
9. Of pre-mature death. Often an idea is rushed to its buyer without proper follow-up, refinement, additional research or involved with the target audience. No idea is delivered perfect. Virtually every good idea needs a bit of nurturing before it's delivered to the seller.
10. It won't generate media coverage. This statement makes my skin crawl - and not because I'm against media coverage. But in this age of social media, which allows organisations to communicate directly and relevantly with their audiences, to suggest an idea only has merit value if a journalist covers it takes public relations back to the 1960s.
