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The Good Thing About Bad Ideas
Sometimes you have to go South in order to go North
One of the inevitable things you will hear at a brainstorming session is “there is no such thing as a bad idea.” This is not true. There are plenty of bad ideas. Nazism, for instance. Arena football. Bow ties.
What well-meaning “keep hope alive” brainstorm aficionados really mean is this: Even bad ideas can lead to good ideas if the idea originators are committed enough to extract the non-obvious value from the “bad”.
Do you think that War and Peace was written in one sitting? No way. There were plenty of earlier drafts that were horrid, but eventually led to the final outcome.
“I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I’m frightened of the old ones.” — John Cage
The key? Finding the value in what seems to be a “bad idea” at first blush and then using this extracted value as a clue, catalyst or springboard for further exploration. The following technique shows you how:
HOW IT WORKS:
- Write your biggest challenge as a question that begins with the words “How can I?”
- Jot down at least ten really bad ideas in response to your question
