Monday, October 20, 2014

Musings on brainstorming

I have faced many situations where we put our smartest people on the problem at hand. We discover all the reasons why this option or that can’t work.  Then we limit ourselves, as good business people always do, to the small 5% space left of options that might be feasible, affordable, politically acceptable, etc.  I get that.  I do that every day.  But, for some issues, when everything around me says "No", I have witnessed the brilliant light of unexpected discovery.  This either happens through accident, such as the discovery of penicillin, or by involving others who didn’t know it wasn’t possible and who weren’t burdened by the facts.  These are people who are able to look at 100% of the space since they don’t know they can’t.  I would encourage you to enlist those right brained (rad) thinkers instead of always calling on your left brained (logical) contemporaries.  The hope is that they throw enough mud at the wall that we find that unexpected discovery overlooked by those who know it can’t be done.  Sometimes it works incredibly well.  Sometimes it confirms we just can’t get there from here – yet.  Naïve?  Maybe.  But don’t tell that to the long list of successful entrepreneurs who have made fortunes by doing just that.  Try it.  You just might find that elusive solution. 

S. Scott Voynich, CPA, CGMA

Managing Partner