No one has ONLY good ideas. Stop buying that lie. We all have ideas; some of them are good, and some are bad – that’s life. Accept it.
We must avoid the temptation to become “idea snobs.” Even bad ideas have potential and a place in our creative process.
Every idea deserves the chance to reach its potential. The good ones, the excellent ones, stay with us and have to be moved to action. But, sometimes the mediocre – or unfortunate – ideas get tossed to the curb and left for dead. Inside some of those bad ideas could be the potential for future successful ideas. How can we tell?
- Write every idea down. Document each one. Have a place to come back to them and revisit those gifts.
- Always give ideas space. Good or bad, they need space to breathe and grow. The worst practice we can have as creative people is moving on ideas right when they arrive. Sometimes we have to, but it’s not a “Best Practice.”
- Allow yourself the freedom to change an idea or use it later. Just because it’s not good for today does not mean it never will work.
- Ask the right question! What adjustments can be made to these common ideas to make them become extraordinary?
Maybe these ideas challenge us to ask questions and come out of our problem or production from a different angle. - Play with a bad idea. Flush it out. Something great might come out of it as we talk through how it would or would not work.
- Share these ideas. Sharing them scares us, but just talking through them can cause your creative community to respond and birth a newer or better version of the concept.
- Never hold back. Creating in a community can save even the worst idea if it spurs a new best idea. A different lens often can turn a bad idea into an awesome concept.
Have you ever used a bad idea to create a great idea? Do you save your bad ideas or throw them away?
