"That’s a good idea and here’s why” - or how NOT to kill creativity from the start
Creative ideas are like fragid bud-they’ve got to be nurtured so they can blossom.
This post is about what you can do to keep an ideation session on track and value creativity.
Situations that might appear in an ideation session and why they happen:
some persons will stop writing after a few minutes ideas and tell you that they finished; this happens as they have a high psychological need of incidence, adrenaline
some persons start judging ideas as soon as they are spoken or written; this happens as they have a high psychological need for recognition of their values and when an idea does not fit this, they want to put it away
some persons are questioning the ideas and placing a lot of “W” questions on the person who just came up with one; they have a high psychological need for recognition of their productive work and want to make sense of everything, even though in this phase even the one who generated the idea did not think further yet (there is no pitch for it)
some persons just like to provoke others and create a context for this in the ideation part; they have a high psychological need for playfulness and when this is not met they provoke or have a passive-aggressive behavior
What can you do to avoid all of these situations?
🎲 Set expectations towards what happens in the ideation session before starting the real exercise.
explain to them it can be uncomfortable to come up with ideas in a fixed time frame
tell them it is about having an outcome in a short time, in order not to waste their energy in discussions
the together but alone principle is used - this means that they will work together on the same ideation but individually in silence; talking will not happen, it will be without discussions
explain to them that with silent work all voices will be heard, without discussion but through sticky notes which will be their voice; in this way also the introverted people will be included and all persons in general
🎲 Create a set of suggestions for success with the team before starting the exercise.
I do not like calling them “rules” but “suggestions for success”, because some people have high sensitivity to authority and cannot cope with rules in general
you can come up with prepared examples that can be taken into consideration by the team and they can add more if they wish:
respect other people thinking time and stay in silence until the exercise is over
continue writing ideas even if you have the impression you finished, try to come up with more until time is over, you might be surprised on the outcome
judging ideas will not happen, there is no silly idea, there is no good or bad idea
if somebody offers a novel idea, instead of the next person who speaks shooting it down, the next person who speaks must be an ‘angel’s advocate, someone who says, ‘that’s a good idea and here’s why (idea from the book “The Brain and Emotional Intelligence: New Insights” by Daniel Goleman)
One phrase summary:
We are all different and have different psychological needs. This is why in certain situations we behave in a specific way. Creating together suggestions for a successful session is the key to really having an outcome that everyone wishes for. Setting the expectations before the exercise starts is making sense in any setting for any exercise.
Creative ideas are like fragid bud-they’ve got to be nurtured so they can blossom.
If you want to know more about the neuroscience of creativity flow, stay tuned for the next newsletter posts!