Marketing Secrets
Marketing Secrets
The Lost Art of Brainstorming
Rule 1: No Nos
If you’re tuning in here, make sure to catch the definition.
There’s a lot to unpack in the list of possible Big Questions and you might find that you have lots of Big Questions. It’s important to take them one at a time. Chances are that you haven’t been able to answer your questions in a way that is meaningful to your bottom line because you’re trying to answer them ALL at once. If you want answers, you need to get out of your own way and try a different approach.
Brainstorming has rules. Only a few, but they are not up for debate.
Rule 1: No Nos
This is usually the first rule to get broken in any brainstorm session, because it’s a bad habit that we all learn early. But! It’s the first rule for a reason. Instinctively, we are looking for ways to poke holes in ideas. How will it fail? Why is this better than my idea? How will this inconvenience my life? My ideas don’t matter and aren’t good enough. How much money will this cost? My people will never go for this, etc. Even if it’s just one person, it’s contagious. Which leads to good ideas being silenced or struck down without actual consideration or time to get to the next iteration of that idea.
We should be Yes people in a brainstorm. If you ever took an improv class, there’s a “yes, and” tenant that keeps the improv going. You shoot something down, and it goes nowhere. You say, “yes, and…” and it keeps the ideas flowing.
Before you even get into the brainstorm room, you should exercise this rule. Should we invite Accounting to our brand strategy meeting? Yes. Why? Getting people paid and getting paid are two touch points to the customer experience. You are going to need to know how that looks when you are mapping a customer experience and planning a brand. Accounting knows that best. And not just the Controller, also the person who is doing collection calls or entering data. Yes. And.
Once you’re in the brainstorm room, you have to have a punitive measure for those that break this important rule. It has to be a “punishment” that everyone can enforce, every time. My preferred method is Silly Stringing anyone that No Bombs an idea. Now is not the time for No. Even if it’s the president of the company. (Yes, I’ve Silly Stringed executives in front of their employees for No Bombing.) No one is above this rule.
Next up, Rules 2 + 3 that address chaos and paper>>
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