he Gab

BY DR GAVIN SYMANOWITZ
Why I banned
brainstorming
B
rainstorming is the oldest
and most widely used crea-
tivity technique in business
today. So if everyone uses
it then it must work, right?
Wrong! Brainstorming might work
reasonably well for generating medio-
cre ideas with incremental impact, but
it is completely useless for coming up
with truly innovative breakthrough
ideas. I've banned brainstorming in
my business - here is the reason why.
IT'S A NUMBERS GAME, OR IS IT?
"Come up with as many ideas as you
can. Focus on quantity, not quality!"
This is the first fundamental rule of
brainstorming and on the surface it
seems to make sense. Nobel prize-
winning scientist Linus Pauling said:
"The way to get good ideas is to get
lots of ideas, and throw the bad ones
away." A bit like picking strawberries
- the way to go home with a good bas-
ket is to pick lots of strawberries and
then just throw away the rotten ones.
Pauling also said: "When an old
and distinguished person speaks
to you, listen to him carefully and
with respect - but do not believe
him . . . Your elder, no matter whether
he is a Nobel laureate, may be wrong."
I'm afraid in this case, he is. Ideas are
2 4 FINWEEK 20 FEBRUARY 2014
a.
not like strawberries.
HERE COMES THE BRIDE
Let's say your wedding is coming up
next month. You've been dreaming
about the big day since you were a lit-
tle girl and you want everything to be
perfect - especially your hair. You've
done your research and have narrowed
it down to two hairstylists, each with
a very different approach.
So the first hairstylist says, "I can do
70 different hairstyles for you!"
"Okay," you say, "but are you any
good?"
"Well, that's not really important
to me, it's much more important that
I can do a lot of different styles, who
cares what they look like?"
She hands you a book with exam-
ples of her work. You go through it and
can't believe what you see. Each photo
looks worse than the one before, now
youre feeling quite depressed.
Then you go over to the second
hairstylist. She says: "Look, I don't do
a lot of different hairstyles; in fact, I
specialise in only three. It's not a wide
variety, but they're immaculate, done
to absolute perfection." She holds up
a card with just three photographs,
each displaying one of the three styles
she specialises in. Your mood changes
instantly. You can't decide which of the
three photos is the most beautiful.
Now the question is which hair-
stylist is going to do your hair for your
wedding? Obviously it's the specialist.
Who cares how many styles a hairstyl-
ist can do if she does all of them badly?
Who cares how many ideas you've
got if none of them are good? The real-
ity is, asking people to forget about
quality and focus on getting as many
ideas as possible is a sure-fire recipe for
rubbish. Do you really want 70 rubbish
ideas? I don't. I want one great one.
It reminds me of the old joke about
two friends discussing business. The
one says, "I'm really excited, I just
opened up a hamburger joint."
"Eantastic" says his friend. "How
much are you selling the burgers for?"
"RIO."
And how much does each burger
cost you to make?"
"R20."
"Hang on. It's costing you R20 to
make a burger but you're selling it for
RIO. That means you're making a loss
of RIO on each burger that you sell."
"Oh, don't worry," says his friend.
"I'll make it up on volume."
No, he won't - no matter how many
he sells, he'll still on the losing end.
And the same with brainstorming - if
you come up with 70 loser ideas, at the
end of the day, whichever one you pick
- you'll still end up with a loser idea.
You can't make up for it on volume.
A DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH
In reality, most great ideas don't start
out great. They start out as seeds that
need to be developed and nurtured in a
structured approach. And brainstorm-
ing ensures that the seeds of great ideas
are not given the attention that they
deserve. There simply isn't the time to
devote to building that one great idea
when you're focused on generating as
many (bad) ideas as you can.
In addition, your company is unlike-
ly to have the resources to properly
pursue more than one or two big new
product ideas a year. If that's the case,
why would you want 70 ideas? The
unfortunate truth is that as we increase
the number of ideas we pursue, the
odds of any one idea being successful
declines.
ARE YOU JUDGING ME?
The second fundamental rule of brain-
storming is that we are not allowed to
judge other people's ideas. Again, this
20 FEBRUARY 2014 FINWEEK 25
seems to make sense on the surface.
People interpret an attack on their ideas
as an attack on their self-esteem, and
their natural reaction is to get defensive
or to shut down and stop contributing.
If we want people to feel safe in putting
forward their ideas, we must be very
careful not to criticise their contribu-
tions.
So at the start of most brainstorm-
ing sessions, the facilitator will remind
participants: "Don't judge - there are
no bad ideas." The problem is that this
rule is a recipe for even more rubbish.
The reality is that there really are bad
ideas. In fact, most ideas are bad ideas.
And the only way to make them better
is to identify their flaws and fix them,
which means that you absolutely need
to judge them to make tbem into better
ideas. It's a crucial part of the process.
"What doesn't kill you makes you
stronger." It's exactly the same with
ideas - if an idea is subject to tbe high-
est level of scrutiny, and can weather
the storm, tben it emerges a much
stronger idea - and much more likely
to succeed.
A great example to illustrate this is
the way the butterfly emerges from its
cocoon. Wbile struggling to push its
way through tbe tiny opening of tbe
cocoon, the butterfly pushes fluid out
of its body and into its wings. This
strengthens the wings, and without
the struggle, the butterfly would never
be able to fly. It's the same witb ideas.
You can't be easy on ideas - you need to
struggle witb them, identify their prob-
lems, and work through tbem and
through this process tbey will emerge
much stronger on tbe otber side.
So instead of telling participants not
to judge each otber's ideas, we sbould
rather encourage this behaviour. Tbe
key is to get people engaged around tbe
idea, because no idea can go forward
witbout some level of engagement.
Being silent about an idea is mucb
2 worse tban criticising it.
I As a contributor of ideas, we bave
^ to understand tbat if our ideas are
I going to take bold, they will bave to
= change - it's a given. You might bave
beard tbe old joke: "A woman marries
a man expecting be will cbange, but
be doesn't. A man marries a woman
expecting tbat she won't cbange, and
she does." Wben it comes to our ideas,
we sbould expect tbem to cbange. We
shouldn't get upset or take it personally
wben tbat starts to bappen. We sbould
expect judgment and accept it witb
open arms as tbe first step to making
tbe idea a reality.
IDEAS ON DEMAND
Most business meetings are scbeduled
witb a specific key outcome in mind.
Tbis might relate to an action item,
important decision, or feedback report.
Eitber way, tbe expectation is tbat tbe
outcome will be resolved witbin tbe
time allocated - and it usually is.
Tbe same tbinking is applied to
brainstorming sessions. Tbe session
is scheduled to start at 13:00, and by
14:00 we are expected to bave come
up witb tbe next big idea for tbe busi-
ness. Unfortunately, creativity cannot
be ordered on demand. Big ideas don't
stick to meeting scbedules.
GOOD BUT NOT GREAT
I remember talking to a colleague wbo
bad just come out of a brainstorm-
ing session. "How did it go?" I asked.
"Brilliant!" be replied, "We were on
fire. We generated 50 ideas!"
Sadly, the success of a brainstorming
session is often measured by tbe num-
ber of ideas generated ratber tban tbe
end-goal of actually solving a problem
or improving tbe business. We band
out post-it notes and tell people to
"Write as many ideas as fast as you can
for 15 minutes. Come on, I want as
many ideas as you can. It doesn't mat-
ter what you write, just write!" Next
tbing you know, tbe wall is covered
in bundreds of small yellow pieces
of paper, perhaps witb little coloured
stickers indicating wbicb ideas people
liked. Tben tbe time is up, tbe meeting
is over, and everyone disappears back
into tbeir offices to carry on witb tbeir
daily work. And, inevitably, very little
bappens after tbat.
According to Jim Collins, an Amer-
ican business consultant: "Good is tbe
enemy of great." Unfortunately, this
applies to brainstorming as well. It
yields good results, wbicb is wby tbe
practice is so prevalent in tbe corporate
world and bas stood tbe test of time.
However, it very rarely yields great
results. And tbat's wby I've banned
brainstorming in my business. I don't
want a good business. I want a great
one.
Dr Symanowitz is an actuary and found-
er ofBlockbusterInnovation.com.
2 6 FINWEEK 20 FEBRUARY 2014