Are You Inadvertently Stifling New Ideas?

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Our comfort zones instinctively dislike change (because change is the opposite of comfort) so in knee-jerk style, it’s not unusual for us to reject new ideas within 3 seconds of hearing them (10 seconds if we’re polite). It’s natural. We say things — and hear them –all the time. Here’s a list of 12 “Idea Killers” that you want to try to stifle, at least initially, so that people open up to you.

1. We did that already.
2. It costs too much.
3. We don’t have the resources.
4. You’ll never get approval.
5. It’s not in the budget.
6. Boss will never go for it.
7. That’s not the way things are done around here.
8. Put it in writing.
9. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
10. You can’t fight city hall.
11. I don’t think anybody here knows how to do that.
12. We don’t have the time.

When someone else says one of these expressions, recognize it as a comfort zone burp and either ignore it (as you would someone else’s burp) or pause, ask them a question that’ll park their objection, and continue. The easiest question to ask is simply to restate their own words with a question mark on the end — “We don’t have the time?”.

You’ll find it’s smart not to stifle other people’s ideas — or let them dump ice water on yours. After all, this is the Idea Age.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, July 20th, 2006 at 10:46 am and is filed under Podcast. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Are You Inadvertently Stifling New Ideas?

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