“There is no such thing as a bad idea.”
I first heard this pernicious mantra in my first agency brainstorms back in the late-1990’s. I’ve heard it throughout my career. Even when I was a junior, I sensed that starting a ‘creative session’ with a cliche, a platitude, a paean to mediocrity, was a fundamental flaw in a fundamentally flawed process.
There really IS such a thing as a bad idea, and the problem is too many of them see the
light of day.
Brainstorms generate lots of ideas, but seldom the RIGHT idea. The flip side to creative thought is critical thought: ‘Who going to give a shit about this idea, and why?’ (ad agencies, take note).
We only have ourselves to blame if we are still gathering time-poor groups of colleagues in a room, to prompt them to say the first thing that comes into our heads, focusing on random connections (guess what, you get random outcomes) and asking what bloody Bowie or Beyonce would do. If it doesn’t work, repeat the process. (Although I readily admit, I’d genuinely like to see what Beyonce would do with a budget of £10k to launch a biscuit).
What we need instead is focus, time and the right prompts processes to think.
So, here’s an idea. What if we banished ‘There Is No Such Thing As A Bad Idea’ to the bin and get rid of brainstorms while we’re at it. If we’re getting rid of the bathwater, we might as well chuck out the baby with it.
None of my ideas, none that have won awards or in my portfolio, have ever come from a brainstorm. Wherever I’ve worked as a creative and mentor, I have looked to change the process. ‘There’s no such thing as a bad idea’ is removed from both the vernacular and the mindset for starters.
Secondly, the notion that there is such a thing as a dull brief. There really isn’t. It’s our job to find ways to make the client problem exciting to us or the target audience. If it isn’t, create a new problem that is.
Bill Gates famously said ‘I will always choose a lazy person to do a difficult job. They will find the easiest way to do it.’ I admit, on more than one occasion in my career, senior colleagues have questioned if I was doing my job as a creative lead.
Why wasn’t I more high-energy, flamboyant, jazz-hands in the air, handing out Haribos and running interminable brainstorms for a dozen colleagues already distracted and panicked about impending deadlines, sell-ins, meetings and existing crises?
‘He is just sitting there. Looking at the wall, scribbling. What the hell is he doing?’
I was thinking.
‘He is chatting to people on the sofa, having a cup of tea, laughing.’
I was getting them to think too. Think harder, better, deeper, wilder. Weirder.
We think, therefore we are working.
And it works.
Mark Perkins is the former ECD at W and COW, and founder of POP! Creative Training
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