Brainstorming can be a blast for some, but also a nightmare for others. During such sessions, leaders often declare “every idea is a good idea” to nudge responses from participants – but is this actually effective? We can fantasise about having infinite budgets and complete creative reign over every little detail as much as we want, but let’s be real… clients will (almost) always be penny pinchers and no idea can truly escape rules and restrictions. This creates a bit of a paradox, because how can every idea be a good idea if constraints are unavoidable?
While it’s true that having no restrictions would allow the river of ideas to flow freely, we need some boundaries to keep our ideas grounded – Batman is a really cool superhero, but is he the right face for this brand? Can the client even afford the licensing rights? Even the most novel and suitable ideas become useless if we can’t feasibly put it into action! Can we constructively transform constraints so that they become more than just dampeners to our imaginations? Join Wordsmith and let’s find out!
Not all restrictions are prisons
Although we tend to interpret constraints as do or die, they can also be interpreted as road signs. Are road signs inherently evil because they tell you what you can and can’t do? Sure, being on a highway with a low speed limit sucks when there’s not much traffic, but road signs also tell us if we’re on the right highway to begin with! You wouldn’t want to drive halfway from California to Florida only to learn that you’ve been driving to Canada instead.
According to Michael White’s experience (founder of MashTank and former Forbes Councils members), he found people to be most creative when there are constraints in place. Using prisons as an example, he comments on the variety of contraband that gets confiscated annually. Considering all the rules and restrictions in place to keep inmates from getting into more trouble, how they manage to fashion weapons and tools, sneak in illegal substances and so forth shows an incredible level of creativity and dedication. As the saying goes, “where there’s a will, there’s a way” – if prison inmates can work their magic in light of all these restrictions, then surely we can too, right?
To further illustrate why constraints are a good business practice, White brings up a hypothetical situation where we want to ask the client for business referrals. Which of the following is better?
A. “Would you be willing to refer us to someone, and if so, can I get their information?”
B. “Do you have any friends in the industry, outside your region and that you don’t compete with, who would benefit from this type of work? Any contacts from conferences that you’d like to benefit from our help?”
Option A might seem perfect at a glance, but it could lead to fruitless referrals – especially if we reach out to prospective clients just to find out that they are competitors of our initial client or work in an industry we are unfamiliar with – which means wasted time for everybody involved! Option B (despite how demanding it may sound with the constraints), wastes no time at all and gives the client a clear understanding on the sort of referral we want.
The right frame of mind
How the leader sets up constraints within a brainstorming session is crucial to the productivity of the group. Consider the following problem:
· Our client sells pet accessories and they have experienced a slump in sales since COVID. How can we help them raise sales?
Without setting any constraints, we’re going to get a broad range of responses:
· Use sex appeal to boost eyeball count in our ads
· Create a new line of products that are completely different from what they are currently selling
· Lower prices to be more competitive
· Sponsor popular influencers and have them promote the products online and offline
While these may be valid solutions, the client probably won’t be willing to accept them (and would likely get upset that we had the audacity to suggest some of these). Let’s try again with more restrictions in place:
· Our client’s import and retail accessories for pets, but sales have slumped since COVID. They can’t change their prices too much without crippling their revenues. The client sends out promotional and informational emails bi-weekly to their subscribers, but subscription counts have been low – but they want to keep doing weekly emails to foster continued audience engagement. They also made it clear they want to continue retailing products from Europe because not many pet stores in Hong Kong sell pet toys and furnishings from there.
Constraints come in two varieties: hard and soft edges. Hard edges are absolute rules that we must abide by, such as the client expecting to sell European-made pet toys and furnishings. On the other hand, soft edges aren’t set in stone – like price adjustments or tinkering with their logistics arrangements – we should try and abide by these soft rules, but they do offer some creative leeway if we want to try bending the rules (up to a reasonable point anyway).
Taking these hard and soft constraints into consideration, we can better gauge what options the client would be willing to accept:
· Influencers are a good idea, but does the client have the budget to target big influencers? Or would looking for small up-and-coming types be more prudent?
· To improve audience engagement, would changing to a weekly model be more effective?
o In addition to the usual new products and promotions, we could suggest more ways to nurture engagement – such as inviting customers to share pictures of their pets with the products, retelling their experiences with the products or even just pet stories in general. It’d give these pet owners more potential social media exposure as well, which would be a win-win!
· Since product prices are inflexible, would introducing a free shipping/delivery policy after reaching a certain purchase amount be helpful?
o How about a loyalty programme or some other way to induce continued spending?
· If the client is after exclusivity, are there more pet products that they could possibly expand into? Perhaps European-made pet foods? Would getting into pet servicing also be viable?
“Constraints are how leaders can frame the challenges they want their team to creatively address,” explains White. “Remember: you’re not introducing nonsensical barriers for their own sake. You’re creating a conduit for creativity.” In the case of our example, we opened up plenty of new directions for our brainstorming group to explore simply by working around each constraint – with the right mix of hard and soft constraints, your brainstorming sessions will be able to move in a more productive direction too!