If you've ever planned a birthday party for a kid, you're pretty amused at their answers if you ever stop to ask them how they'd like their party to go. Maybe you have!
"Pony rides! A wrestling ring and a professional wrestler throwing guests around! Dresses for our cats! Thunderbirds flyover! Nighttime drone art!" Yeah, kids have never heard of a budget.
You have. Some of these ideas are possible with a little bit of money--hello kitty! But what if you had the budget? What could you say "yes" to?
Even with an unlimited budget, some of these ideas are a logistical--think permitting--nightmare.
So your kid learns what "no" sounds like. Even if you can somehow soften the blow, your reply is still going to land hard for a child. Why did you even ask? Well, it might be that you'd like the child to feel some ownership for the party. Some of the ideas could happen, and that's not nothing.
By the time that child is an adult, they've heard "no" more often than "yes." In fact, they'll do most of the work on justifying a no, even before you've asked them for help or for their ideas.
Imagine they're your employee and you need assistance with a new marketing program. "I'd like some ideas for promoting our new service to industry leaders." And you'll watch them grow uncomfortable. Already, they're assessing what has been done before--and why it won't work--as well as what has never been done before and why those untested ideas also won't work. So they stall, clam up, and promise to get back to you.
Now it's true: you have a budget for this initiative. Can't help that. And there's logistical hurdles that also dampen an enthusiastic endorsement on your part. You've got experience here too. So, top to bottom, this project is already being cratered by lots of learned nos.
What if you could say yes...way more yes? Let's start with budget. You've got millions of dollars to spend. Does that change the type and number of ideas you will field? And what about logistics? Imagine being able to dismiss those hurdles. What then? I imagine that a birthday party with no hurdles or budget limitations could be pretty epic. Let's imagine that it's an actual good-faith birthday party, not some exercise in hedonistic license. Something fun.
If a child says, I'd like ponies to ride, you could say--if you have no budget or logistical constraints--Yes! We should have one pony for each guest. The child says Yes! and we should have pony treats handed to each guest when they arrive to reward their pony. You say, Yes! And people treats too, handed to each guest after they've tethered their pony. The child says, Yes! And the treats should be caramel apples that they can either eat for themselves or share with their pony. You say, Yes! And I recommend a water park to ride through to keep the ponies cool with umbrella hats.
By now the child is giddy with ideas. Having not heard a no, the ideas are just flowing.
But this isn't real life. You don't have millions of dollars to spend on a birthday party. Renting out a water park that accepts ponies just isn't going to happen. And let's return to our newly set upon employee who's tasked with a marketing initiative. You can't clear that budget. Logistical hurdles abound. Are you stuck with "no?"
What is important is when the no occurs. A no at the beginning of the discussion will immediately throw on the brakes. No more discussion will occur. A no at the end is inevitable--think budget--but when there's no brakes during the discussion the ideas encounter no friction.
I had some experience with the unconditional Yes during a college team art project. The instructor gave us supplies, an objective, and a specified time limit for brainstorming. What was brainstorming? Spitballing, essentially, with no guardrails. No "no" during the time window. Only Yes and acceptance was allowed. Anyone who raised a "but" or attempted to censor or edit the brainstorming was gently coached to switch their answer to "yes" and build on what was just expressed.
Some folks struggled! Some of the ideas were quite silly, maybe ultimately a waste of everyone's time. So we were encouraged and coached to set aside our editing, judging hat, and accept all of the ideas as legitimately valuable to the outcome. Why? For what purpose is there to accept an objectively silly idea?
It's what saying "no" did to the process, we learned. As soon as editing or censoring occurred, ideas slowed to a crawl. However, when a silly idea was accepted, that teammate felt empowered, encouraged to continue...*validated*. So maybe the silly idea would fade from memory and thankfully drown under dozens of other ideas being offered. Or! The silly idea became a touch point, a pivot that sparked an intense flurry of incredible, insane, hilarious and inspiring offers built off of that silly idea. You had no way of knowing how valuable or silly an offer was unless it was accepted without censoring and fully explored.
So sure, we had a time limit for the brainstorming. That essentially became our "budget" constraint. Teams were more successful during the brainstorming session if they had said "yes" to everything rather than pausing to debate the efficacy of any one idea. We were compared to other teams in the same class. In the end, some of the teams' solutions were downright zany. Some brilliant--to the absolute delight and surprise of their team. And some were, well, dull and tedious. And you could hear that team's failure by eavesdropping on their discussion during the brainstorming session. Tension, arms folded, navigating the censoring and judgement of teammates who just couldn't let go of "but..." I was on one such frustrating team. We altogether earned a "C." Did our project "work?" Yes, sort of. But we weren't graded on the outcome, although it was admittedly dull and uninspired. We were graded on the process.
Boy, did that lesson stick with me! I have to say that no, I was not one of the judgey folks. I really honestly tried to adhere to the "yes" mantra, but our team was undermined by a few who could not let go. Other than requesting that our team try not to debate ideas rather than accepting them, I was stuck with the team we'd formed. The instructor was sympathetic but ultimately thought the value in the lesson was not in the grade but in the experience. I agree! I'll forever cherish that memory of failure and the lesson it taught. I didn't fail the class, after all.
So that work project, your marketing initiative, needs that window of time where only Yes is allowed. Devoid of budget consideration, logistics, "buts." You absolutely need to see the overwhelming surge of inspiration and creativity that occurs when nothing is judged. For Pete's sake, you already know you've got a budget. Just don't talk about budget when your objective is unfettered creativity.
You may or may not know this, but improvisors--comedy entertainers--employ this principle religiously in their scenic performances. Improvisors call this valuable principle "Yes, and." Yes, which means accepting unquestioningly any offer that's made into the universe that's being built. And, which means "and I'll tack just one more thing onto that." An offer from an improvisor is like a brick to a wall. It's a starting point. The Yes is the mortar. The And is the next brick. A wall cannot be built without bricks and mortar. Or drywall and joint compound, take your pick of metaphor.
Can you apply an improv principle like this to a workplace project? Oh heck yes. You'll build that wall so fast.
Let's apply this to that new service marketing initiative you've asked your employee to spearhead. Imagine saying, "What can we do if we've got millions of dollars to spend, no technological hurdles, and an audience--clients, maybe--absolutely, ecstatically hungry for our new service? Where I think all of your ideas are brilliant. Can you spend the rest of today inventing that marketing program? I'd like to hear your proposals tomorrow morning. I'm not looking for a fully-fleshed program, I'm looking for as many ideas as you can generate. Quantity over practicality." Can you do that?
What's stopping that from happening? You can literally speak this into existence. Your job is to coach your employee to eschew censoring and judging their ideas.
Here at ComedySportz, we've coached dozens of corporate teams on how this works. And we've seen companies become more productive, creative, functioning like well-oiled machinery...measurably, after teams have experienced our programs. If you have questions about how this can work for your team, let's chat. I'll happily talk to you about your team on a quick and free discovery call. From our Hire Us page at https://www.comedysportzaustin.com/hire-us or book that call now at https://calendly.com/mike-topel/30min, it's an immediate, practical reset of a No-But culture to a Yes-And one.
-small.webp)
