Are All Ideas Equal?

[Peter Lloyd]

We've all been guilty of mouthing that old creativity saw, "there's no such thing as a bad idea." I plead guilty anyway. In my latest Right Brain Workout, Equal Time, I take it all back. Sort of.

If anybody thinks its worth discussing here, I'm game.

[Bill Abramovitz]

Oh yeah, I think that's a bunch of BS. If we didn't have any responsibility for our ideas or for producing anything, all ideas may be equal. That all melts away when you start judging which ideas are most likely to produce the best outcomes. The important thing, I think, is to suspend disbelief at the beginning of the ideation process and focus quantity of ideas. The more jello to throw at the wall, the better.

[Peter Lloyd]

You hit your head on the nail with regard to brainstorming. There are no bad ideas in that artificial, temporary, and irresponsible situation. But there plenty of bad ideas passing as relevant theories running out the mouths of hate-radio demagogues and the like today.

Every once in a while I'll be accused of having closed the doors of my mind to some loony idea. I have to remind the proponent that there's a bid difference between an open mind and a gaping cerebral dumpster.

[Bill Brooks]

As we help people come up with creative approaches to life, we are constantly dealing with "stupid" ideas. Our approach to idea generation has always been - write down the everything - the good, the bad, the ugly, the politically incorrect, the sarcastic, the stupid - everything be cause in the brainstorming phase they are all words on a page, and the best ideas come later in the session.

Generally there are very few good ideas and a fish tank full of bad ones but deciding which is which sometimes requires a bit of thought (see the glass manufacture story in Think Better for example). That is why we as facilitators are so important, we recognize when something has potential. Most people write those ideas off as unacceptable.

Creativity, from our perspective is the making and communicating meaningful new connections. It is not about generating ideas. The two words that make the difference here are communicating and meaningful. Let's face it some ideas you would never try to communicate and most just don't fit the meaningful side.

Most of the time the first 3/4's of a brainstorming sessions are just a way to get people to clear their minds and dump out all the thoughts, rememberances, what they have hear from others, ... from which few meaningful new connections can be made. It makes participants feel good.

We have been told that our services are not needed because the group already has too many ideas. That is usually true and most them are CRAP. What the group really needs is away to select the good ones and with this they have met with limited success.

[Peter Lloyd]

Bill,

I think all ideas fall on a continuum from worthless to perfect. Rather than throw away all the ideas down along the W end of the line, I encourage folks to see if they can move them up toward P. Especially the ones that stand out in some way--because they're funny, striking, or wonderfully original.

Peter

[Marc Hurwitz]

Here's an old saw which also sheds some light (I think?)...

"A poor plan well executed is better than a good plan poorly executed"

What if we change it just a little to say

"A poor idea well executed is better than a good idea poorly executed. In fact, a poor idea well executed is actually a good idea that only the owner (maybe) thought was good."

The discussion so far assumes the worth of the idea is something independent (very platonic, lol). How can you do that without also taking into account implementation? Perhaps many crap ideas are like democracy, the worst political system except for all the rest, i.e., it can be executed by people.

[Peter Lloyd]

If I understand, Marc, you say the implementation must be considered in the evaluation of an idea?

If so, this reinforces the old creativity saw, "there's no such thing as a bad idea." So I agree. Ideas, like "all men" as a concept are created equal.

[Marc Hurwitz]

Yeah, that's pretty much it :-). Although I think some ideas do resist being powered up into great ones - these are the false lures. If you have an idea that can't be implemented, then maybe that's a bad idea? Or the combination idea/implementation is against the common weal? This is a much tougher question than I would have expected... certainly more worth discussing.

[Peter Lloyd]

I love questions that seem simple and reveal hidden complexities.

Moving toward implementation and judging ideas require good criteria up front. These, like ideas, limit the context and make some ideas bad for the present challenge, even though they might be great in another context.

[Bill Brooks]

Then if you have to consider the evaluation of an idea when considering the idea then you make the two into a concept (or some other term) which you are evaluating as a whole. You are no longer evaluating the idea. It is that concept that is good or bad - not the idea or the implementation strategy. A crappy idea (strategy) linked with a great strategy (idea) could be considered poor as a concept.

We should probably evaluate the idea against the problem. As we all know a stinky idea against one problem is a rose against another, that is why the process of problem solving has a generatng and a focusing phase, to eliminate those ideas, for that situation has limited implementation potential.

It is all dependent on context. A weed is a weed - even if it is rose.

[Peter Lloyd]

I couldn't agree more about context, unless I tried really hard.

Actually I'm not quite following the first paragraph, but that doesn't mean it's a bad idea. In this context, perhaps the idea of evaluating the idea of evaluating ideas isn't such a good idea.

[Kevin Byron]

It's also worth remembering the quote by Arthur C Clarke:

Every revolutionary idea seems to evoke three stages of reaction. They may be summed up by the phrases:
1- It's completely impossible.
2- It's possible, but it's not worth doing.
3- I said it was a good idea all along.

Maybe we are not talking about such big ideas here but the resistance to 'newness' in smaller ideas often evokes the same response. I also question the ability of the facilitator to spot a good idea because they are often the least knowledgeable about the subject under discussion.

Best Wishes,

kevin

[Peter Lloyd]

I often wonder at the reaction to the idea of bringing the outhouse into the house.

1- It's completely impossible.
No way! Are you out of your mind? It will stink up the whole house.

2- It's possible, but it's not worth doing.
Do you realize how difficult it will be to run pipes underground, under the house, out of the house, and then where?

3- I said it was a good idea all along.
Indoor plumbing is one of the greatest conveniences know to civilization.