Don't Take the First Answer

The macho manager is keen to be seen as decisive and can quickly come up with an idea for tackling most problems. Doing something is generally (but not always) a better option that doing nothing. But the first answer we come up with is unlikely to be the best answer.

A better approach is to take a little time to generate a long list of possible ideas and then evaluate them in order to select one or more to try. Our first idea is often the most obvious, the most straightforward response. It is rarely the best response. As we mull over the problem and force more and more possible solutions we generate less conventional, less routine, less automatic choices - we come up with the creative, the radical and the better options.

When men first wanted to fly the most obvious way to do it was to copy birds by beating two large wings against the air. This was tried and failed many times. But people kept on trying it. In the year that the Wright brothers first flew the US Congress voted to stop funding heavier-than-air flying experiments because they were such an obvious waste of time and money. The aerofoil wing section, which gives lift when driven forward, was a very different and much better option than flapping wings.

When you find yourself tempted to rush into a quick answer, force yourself to pause for a moment. Would it be better to get the opinions of others? Should you run a short brainstorm meeting? Should you ponder the issue yourself for a while? Could you write down several different approaches rather than just one? Some problems demand an immediate response but many do not; they favour a more considered approach. The first idea you come up with may be great, but the chances are that the tenth, twentieth or fortieth will be much better.

Paul Sloane writes and speaks on Innovation and Lateral Thinking. He is the author of The Innovative Leader published by Kogan Page.

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