the innovative LEDGER
An e-Newsletter from The Innovative Edge™ Inc.

  Vol. 3, No. 3, Fall 2003
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The Myth of Original Thinking
By Jeffrey Govendo

I've never had an original thought in my life.

Now, those who know me might disagree (and admittedly, I would be flattered). They'd say, "Jeff, you come up with lots of great ideas! In fact, sometimes we even look to you to offer up the first real off-beat notion that will get us thinking in new directions. Don't be so hard on yourself!"

Thanks, guys - but it's true. Every idea, suggestion or tidbit of information I've come up with - for example, when engaged in brainstorming the solution to a problem - had its origin somewhere else. And, except for the very rare geniuses among us, this is true for everyone. We walk around with a virtual storehouse of memories, thoughts, images, impressions and so forth from all that we encounter and absorb on a daily basis throughout our lifetime. These include the people we work and play with, the books and articles we read, the movies, TV, the web… All of these are other people's thoughts (derived, of course, from yet others…). Whether consciously or not, we always draw upon these to get ideas for the current situation we're in. What determines our level of creativity is our willingness to access the full range of this material (most of which will seem quite irrelevant to the problem we're working on) and to experiment with putting it together in new ways.

What does this suggest in a company environment, when a group of co-workers on a project team, for instance, is struggling to come up with solutions to some of their most vexing problems? Well, one implication, to be sure, is that if each individual allows him/herself to access more of their own internal "library" as noted above, more ideas will come. But, even more than that, how about actively accessing each other's? Think of how many more potential solutions might be available if, instead of merely being a group of individuals where each tries to come up with the breakthrough idea, people are actively listening to one another as if there were no personal boundaries. No pride of authorship, no comparison of whose ideas are "the best" (or worst); rather, each idea truly belonging to the group as a whole - to tweak, to play with, to build upon. What this would result in, as I've witnessed in hundreds of groups I've facilitated - is that the quantity and quality of ideas generated is many times greater than when each person operates as an island. It may not be true in other contexts, but in this one, group process definitely trumps rugged individualism.

Here's a simple and effective technique for getting more mileage out of your fellow team members' ideas. Any time you're about to reply (either aloud or to yourself) "yes, but…" to an idea that's been offered, change it to "yes, and…" What this does is open the door to building on your colleague's idea, even though your build might be quite different from - even contrary to - what your colleague has stated. In effect, it forces you to listen for the purpose of making connections, which greatly increases the sheer output and creativity of ideas. It also sets up an expectation by others in the group that their own ideas (or at least what they think are their own ideas) will be treated in similar fashion. This encourages them to be more daring.

Nobody is more capable of solving a company's tough problems than its own employees, working in a high performing team environment. Think about how you can make the most of your co-workers' brilliant ideas, and you'll have more solutions than you could have dreamed of.

And all this without a single original thought.