#ThinkfullyHabit: Speak up
Have you ever stopped yourself putting forward a view or an idea, assuming that someone else has already thought of it? Or felt that an idea was too obvious and didn't need saying because you’d expect everyone else to be thinking the same thing?
It turns out that we can be poor at judging how valuable our ideas are and not very good at evaluating how unique our ideas may actually be.
And, if we need extra reassurance in order to speak up, there’s a particular way we can increase the likelihood that our ideas are less obvious - and that is to push ourselves to generate more ideas than we might naturally do and to continue beyond our immediate ideas. In this way we are more likely to increase the originality of the ideas; giving us even more reason to speak up.
“When it comes to idea generation, quantity is the most predictable path to quality. Original thinkers will come up with many ideas that are strange mutations, dead ends, and utter failures. The cost is worthwhile because they also generate a larger pool of ideas — especially novel ideas. Many people fail to achieve originality because they generate a few ideas and then obsess about refining them to perfection.”
WHY?
A recent study* looked at how accurate people are in judging the originality of their own ideas. It showed that we might be wrong if we think our own ideas are not very original or creative. They tasked people to generate as many ideas as possible on what different objects could be used for. They then asked them to rate how original their ideas were likely to be and found that people significantly underestimated the originality of their own ideas. People expected that others would also think of the same ideas as themselves, when this in fact was often not the case.
Researchers also find that producing a higher quantity of ideas is significantly associated with higher creativity**. This has been consistently shown to be the case.
Not sure how to go beyond your immediate ideas? Here’s some specific tips:
PUSH ON: When your ideas naturally slow or stop, keep going until you get to at least one further idea.
COME BACK: Take 5 minutes and come back. Take 5 hours and come back. Take 5 days and come back. Okay, it doesn’t need to be those time intervals, the most important thing is to deliberately come back a few times over. Not all ideas will develop at one time.
LOOK OUT: Take inspiration from a totally different area of life e.g. from nature, from sport, from your favourite hobby. Ask yourself what could inspire different and additional ideas.
NOTE DOWN: Expect to have further ideas randomly at any point in time – and when you do, be ready to take note.
The implications? Firstly, generate more ideas rather than less. Give yourself permission to generate rubbish ideas - it's an integral part of the process. Secondly, don’t be too quick to dismiss ideas because you think they are not that unique or original and don’t be too quick to assume that just because you’ve thought it, someone else will already have thought it too.
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