Idea Killers
Idea Killers
Phrases used for thoughtless idea rejection — the reflexive dismissals that kill promising ideas before they can be evaluated on their merits. From The Myths of Innovation (Scott Berkun):
“They’re used by people who are too lazy to give useful criticism or direction, who fail to ask idea-provoking response questions, or who dismiss others’ ideas believed to have the potential for good ideas.”
Berkun’s point: many idea killers are half-truths. “It’s not in our budget” and “We don’t have time” disguise the real issue — both budget and schedule can change for a sufficiently good idea. The phrases serve to end conversation without engaging the idea.
The list
- We tried that already.
- We’ve never done that before.
- We don’t do it that way here.
- That never works.
- Not in our budget.
- Not an interesting problem.
- We don’t have time.
- Executives will never go for it.
- It’s out of scope.
- People won’t like it.
The countermove is to ask idea-provoking questions rather than dismissing — “What would need to be true for this to work?” rather than “We’ve never done that before.”