You visit a new restaurant for a tasty dinner, do you only read the top menu item and order it – ignoring the rest of the menu? I don’t believe you would.

In both situations, before making a decision, you would first review all your options. You’d scan each of the books in the marketing section. You would read the entire menu. Then, from that full selection of offerings, make the best choice.

We appreciate and expect variety and choice with these decisions, but often when making bigger, more financially critical decisions at work… we deny ourselves options. We thwart our capacity to be innovative.

In the name of efficiency, when faced with problems or challenges at work, we go forward with the first workable option we can think of. Business pressure – to get things done quickly and efficiently – causes us to miss options. This can cause us to miss the best solution.

One Item – If you go with the first, only idea you have, that isn’t decision-making. That’s a last resort. Decisions require choosing from a pool of options.

Two Items – Selecting among two alternative ideas isn’t a decision either — it is only choosing this or don’t do this.

Decisions improve in proportion to the number of interesting, attractive, and doable alternatives you have to consider.

We must pile-up a list of unusable ideas. The more ideas you think up, the more likely you are to arrive at one that is brilliant and remarkable.

Even if you think you’ve happened upon the best idea right from the start, you should think up a few more. Picking one idea from a pool of one isn’t a choice. Don’t stop at the first one that seems to fit. Keep thinking. Come up with at least two more ideas for a total of three to choose from.

If that first idea is the one you go with, you can have the confidence that you’ve made a choice. That you weren’t just forced into using the first idea that popped into you mind.

Choice and options, when it comes to important decisions, isn’t a luxury, but a requirement. The next time you or your team start moving with the first idea that pops into mind, entertain other options. You deserve the right to decide, not simply be forced with an approach due to haste. Brainstorm a few more workable ideas. You deserve choices. Remarkable ideas spring from choices.

Is your audience still with you?
Do they get where you’re going?
Do they have confidence in the direction?

Out of college, my first job was at Walt Disney World in Orlando. I was a tour guide at the “Listen To The Land” boat ride at Epcot’s Land Pavilion.

I led Guests on a 20-minute journey through farming methods of yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

It was one of the easiest “leading” jobs I’ve ever had. I didn’t have to worry about the pace, the process, or the “pulse” of the Guests on my boat. Disney already figured that out. The boats moved along a track at a pre-chosen speed, through carefully crafted scenes. I simply had to re-recite my 20-minute spiel with a smile in my voice in pace with the different show scenes.

Unfortunately, most audiences are not as captive.

As leaders, we need to constantly check-up on our followers. While you push forward, you also have to look back. The mountain guide a mile ahead and out of view of his pack, is worthless. A meeting facilitator, sticking to the agenda with a confused team, has stopped adding value.

Pace, Process & Pulse

To avoid losing your audience, regularly check your pace, the process, and your audience pulse.

Pace
Are we going to fast? Is the group feeling rushed? Can they keep up? Or are we dragging, too slow? Are you losing their interest through boredom?

Process
Are you taking them along an appropriate path? Are they in shape for a rocky climb, or do you need to take the paved path? Are we using the right tools?

Pulse
How are they feeling? Have they tuned out? They may be keeping up with pace and process, but may be frustrated.

A responsible guide checks on her group. She asks questions to ensure folks are still confidently following. She makes necessary adjustments, being mindful of the end point.

Remembering “Pace, Process, and Pulse” in your box of leadership tools can help you shift from good to great.

This article was inspired by a chapter in Ingrid Bens’ book Advanced Facilitation Strategies.

The Land Boat Ride For people who have been on the boat ride (at least in the early 90s)… the three things they remember are…

1. hydroponic gardening (plants grown without soil),
2. the 1-piece babyblue polyester overalls (i.e. farmer of the future) costume, and
3. the theme song: “Let’s Listen to the Land.” (It is the 2nd most haunting song after “It’s a Small World” and sticks in your brain – forever).

Some say the lack of innovation within organizations isn’t because of a lack of ideas, rather a lack of action. There are too many ideas and not enough implementors.

But, ideas need champions to implement them. Just the same way seeds need farmers.

A popular recommendation is: Stop generating ideas and start taking action. Stop the brainstorming and get to work. To return to my farm comparison, that would be like declaring:

Since crop production (innovation) is down
we need more farmers (execution)
and fewer seeds (ideas).

But that doesn’t work. We’d end up with a bunch of hungry farmers standing in cropless fields.

Fact is, we need both.

There is a symbiotic relationship between the pair. One can’t get along without the other.

We ‘get’ that a seed isn’t a plant. We should understand an idea isn’t a plan. Seed (and ideas) take time, patience, pruning, and weeding to bear fruit.

And, brainstorming is for more than idea generation; it is also a solution-finding process. We meet for more than creating ideas; brainstorming and strategy sessions help us choose the right idea to properly solve the problem or grow the business. Which seed is right for the soil you have? For the amount of water you have access to? What is right for the crop you want to produce?

Next time you run into someone bashing ideas and strictly touting action… Remember, it isn’t one or the other. To be innovative, we need to be good at both idea generation and idea execution.

This article was originally published on the MarketingProf’s DailyFix blog.

Yet, since most of us work in an environment where different people come from different backgrounds with differing approaches on how to reach a similar goal – compromise is a reality.

There are times when you don’t need to win, but you do need diplomacy. You need “best possible.” To strike a balance. A happy medium. This situation calls for a Target Diagram!

This graph is great for plotting something that falls within a realistic range of choices … The prime space between NONE and ALL. It is what you use when you need the right mix.

It is different from a Quadrant Diagram. That categorizes the lows and highs of something. The quadrant is great when you’re pushing for the extreme. To maximize.

This is not that.

It is almost like a Venn diagram—where the two or three circles meet representing the perfect blend.

But, it isn’t that either.

The target diagram is a great way to gauge you’re within established boundaries. Not too high or too low. The business equivalent of what Goldilocks was after at the Bear’s house—”just right.”

To try it, put your two sets of opposing forces at either end of the axes. In my example, I’m balancing website design between what we really want, and what we need to do to meet logistical needs. The goal is to find ideas that comes close to the middle of the target.

Next time your ideas need diplomacy, try graphing them on a target diagram.

This article was originally published on the Marketing Prof’s DailyFix website.

We say “there are no bad ideas” before we brainstorm the same way we say “bless you” after someone sneezes. No one is sure why anymore, but it is polite.

For sneezing? We used to believe when someone sneezed good spirits left their body. Our quick prayer “God Bless You” put them back.

For brainstorming? Saying “there are no bad ideas” is the reminder to not immediately judge and filter out what you may think is a bad idea.

Our brains are wired for quick categorization and judgement. It goes back to our caveman days when we didn’t have time to assess the large-toothed, giant-clawed creature trotting our way. We needed to instantly categorize “danger” and judge “run fast!” These are our basic reflex and memory systems.

When brainstorming – instead of seeing a new idea as new – we instinctively try to find a category for it. This reflex often delivers two categorized responses:

• “we already did that” (i.e. it is old, not new), or
• “we already tried that (i.e. it didn’t work).

Seems all we can come up with are old or failed ideas.

So what?

For starters, kindly asking your team to remember there are no bad ideas is not the solution. You need something more rigorous and shifting than that. A method to force us into separating idea generation from judgement – at least for a brief period.

Okay, we get that people are good a quashing ideas… But, how do you change this habit?

Here are two methods…

1) Edward’s Six Hats

In his book Six Thinking Hats, Edward de Bono offers a method for breaking the thinking process into phases. He suggests six different roles or hats, each with a different perspective. White (facts and figures), Red (emotional), Black (caution/devil’s advocate), Yellow (positive), Green (new ideas), and Blue (organization).

Very simply put, the objective is to have the team wear one hat at a time. Green hat “new ideas” is different from Black hat “caution.” Six Thinking Hats offers you and your team a language and rules to follow for better brainstorming and problem solving.

If different hats aren’t distinct enough “compartments” for your team, perhaps try a method Walt Disney would use.

2) Walt’s Three Rooms

This is sometimes called the Disney Brainstorming Method. (I wrote about it in March of ’12). Walt Disney would often approach idea generation in three phases:

1. The Dreamer,
2. The Realist, and
3. The Spoiler.

The Dreamer would come up with as many ideas as possible. The Realist would assess the ideas to sense which were good, and which should be “plussed” or improved. Finally, the Spoiler would look for potential problems and what could go wrong. (I like to consider the spoiler phase ‘bullet proofing’ an idea).

Moreover, Walt would use three different rooms in his house… one for each thinking phase. For example, the Den for Dreaming, The Dining Room for Realist, and the Kitchen to be the Spoiler. (I made the rooms up, I can’t find documentation which room he used for which).

Changing physical space can be effective as it clearly dilineates where you are in the process. If we’re in the Realist space, we are no longer creating new things. Rather, seeing how we can make the new ideas better. (Of course, capture new ideas if they DO come up in any stage – you don’t want to lose them. However, the focus of Realist is plussing and building).

In the Spoiler stage, we’re looking for flaws, not new ideas or even solutions. (Once you finish the Spoiler stage, I recommend you return to the Dreamer space with the newly broken ideas that still seem promising and think-up fixes or new versions of those ideas.

Walt’s idea is appealing to workspace or home. You can equip and theme each room with artifacts and stimuli that help with that particular process. Paint a blue sky ceiling in the Dreaming room. Fill the spoiler room with scales and devices of measurement. Also, once you get into the habit of using the rooms for each purpose, if you simply need to critique and idea… head to the spoiler room. Want to plus something? Pop into the Realist space for 30-minutes.

Similar to school lunch trays, each item has its own defined, compartmentalized space. Idea-meisters will be happy there is a place for their fresh thoughts. Builders will have their time. Spoilers can relax, confident their pessimistic view will have their space.

Experienced challenges with your team (or personally) allowing free flow of new ideas without judgement and filtering? Try one of these two approaches.

What other methods have you tried that have worked for you?