The Art of Plussing People’s Ideas By Using “Yes, And”
“None of us is as smart as all of us.”
— Kenneth H. Blanchard, author and management expert
Feelings of deficiency can foster competitiveness and jealousy, which tend to shut down your creativity. When we are overcome with feeling like we don’t know enough and that we’ll never be able to keep up with our peers, here’s a thought to consider: maybe we aren’t supposed to know it all. Maybe the reason we feel that we have gaps in our knowledge is because there is someone else whose knowledge complements ours with whom we can join forces. Maybe, just maybe, we’re not supposed to try to do it all by ourselves: instead of feeling like we need to compete with others, we are really destined to work together and collaborate to create something amazing.
Wouldn’t you rather have collaboration and connection, which are key ingredients in creative synergy and teamwork with others? We need to let go of our DIY (Do it Yourself ) mindset and start to embrace a DIWO (Do it With Others) perspective instead. Bruce Nussbaum, the author of the book Creative Intelligence, says, “…creativity is social…and comes out of small teams of twos and threes and fours and fives and sixes. Instead (of brainstorming) you need ‘magic circles,’ small teams of people who trust each other, are familiar with each other, and play together.” Set yourself to the task of tapping into the “superlinear scaling” of creativity by assembling a group of people who will create better together.
Creative Dose: Join Forces and Plus It
Purpose: To leverage collective creativity
What a relief: you don’t have to do all of the creative heavy lifting yourself! Create a circle of creativity compatriots and then use the technique Plussing, which is often attributed to Walt Disney and is actively used by Pixar Studios. With Plussing, you give feedback in a way that is not only helpful but that also provides a new additional suggestion that helps the first idea, ensuring that creativity is nurtured and not stymied.
Ready to start creating magic?
Step 1: Create Your Circle
Remember that having a lot of people is not the goal, but trust is.
Gather people who not only inspire your creative thinking, but who you also trust.
The group members need to feel comfortable enough with each other to feel safe risking looking stupid and making mistakes.
The focus as a group should not necessarily be on generating a lot of ideas together. Rather, the group’s focus should be on building upon each person’s experience and individual expertise to create and play with new ideas.
Got your group together? Great! Now you’re ready to amplify ideas.
Step 2: Plus It
When you are together, build upon and iterate ideas through the use of the supportive language of Plussing.
To start using Plussing with your magic creative circle, follow these simple guidelines:
1) Accept every offer.
Start with whatever you’ve got and don’t shut anyone’s idea out. You want to employ a “do onto others” mentality.
2) Yes, and!
When giving feedback, add a constructive suggestion using language like “yes, and…”, “what if…”, or “how might we do (x)?”. Using phrases like “yes, but…” or “that will never work” will only shut down the flow of ideas and will break trust.
3) Make your partners look good.
By accepting their suggestions and adding to them, you validate their ideas. And when the next person “plusses” what you’ve said, that person makes you look good, and so on.
By employing this structure for increased creative synergy, you’ll be amazed at what your group members contribute and what you’ll be able to produce collectively. You’ll find that not only will collaborations get better, but the circle of your group (or team) will indeed start to play together and create magic.
This post is an excerpt from book Banish Your Inner Critic, under the chapter heading “Raise a Barn”. Reprinted with permission.
