To Hell With the Devil’s Advocate
We've all been there. In brainstorming you're tossing around seeds of ideas, then faster than you can say "Beelzeboob" some yahoo evokes the evil power. "Let me play Devil's Advocate."
You can throw away the fragile idea. This simple phrase lets people claim no personal responsibility by raising questions and concerns that kill vulnerable ideas. This role is poison to creative thinking and pervasive in the corporate environment. The Devil's Advocate is wily too, often masquerading as a dose of helpful reality.
Reality? Sure. Like delicate children, ideas don't enter the world fully formed. They WILL need development. The WILL need examination. They WILL need challenge. Brainstorming is not the time, though. Let them grow a little first.
Okay, so it's reality but helpful? Not at all. There's no more powerful death to innovation. That role only casts negative doubt with Z-E-R-O investment in progressive thinking. These normally nice people mean no harm. But when possessed, doubt intended to review an idea effectively puts the kibosh on it. It takes far more work to build an idea.
I’m a missionary for Devil's Advocate free zones in concepting and brainstorming. If you summon that evil power I'll exorcise it out of you with the power of Idea Angels.
Can I get a witness?
Comments
I'm with you on this.
Pulling the Devil's Advocate card in a brainstorm kills the spirit almost immediately. People second guess their ideas and become reluctant to contribute. This is especially true among those who are more cautious and introverted. Likely, they have great ideas to contribute but need a welcoming environment in which to launch them.
The key is the volume of ideas, which DA immediately limits. Having volume lets you start to see trends and relationships between things. You can start to say things like, "hmm, well these two ideas alone might not work but together they solve the problem in a novel way."
I second that commotion. Amen. Preach it, brother.
True dat, but there's a baby-bathwater issue to remember. If you pull the DA card to tamp down someone else's idea, that has the effect you describe.
But I've also heard the phrase used (and used it myself) as a way of prefacing something along the lines of, "Yeah, that's good -- now what if it's this instead?" Which implicitly admits two ideas to the conversation, w/o quashing any.
I think the mandate is to banish the phrase, because it's linked to the "bad" use, but to keep the spirit of the "good" use alive. Because sometimes one good idea has to stand on another good idea's shoulders to see daylight.
Someone in the office has to play the Devils Advocate, so I'll pick up the responsibility...
Let's GO DUKE!!!!
(squash those heels tonight!)
As for the other kind of Devils Advocate, I agree completely that they should have no place in a brainstorming session. They only undermine free, open, stream-of-consciousness thinking. Unless someone has a modification of an idea that has already been said, or a completely new idea of their own to contribute then (IMO) they shouldn't speak up.
Don't we have boo-balls to throw at DAs in brainstorming for this very reason?
To be fair though, there's definitely space for devils advocates - in nearly all situations, it's useful to have someone there, being contrary, keeping people on their toes.
But wrapping opinions in a disclaimer is bollocks - ultimately, most meetings - and especially brainstorms - have a team output. If the team output is better for one team member asking difficult questions or making ridiculous suggestions, then so be it... The meeting / brainstorm is better for it.
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