Creative Thinking Skills: 29 Phrases Blocking Innovative Ideas

Is your organization lacking innovative ideas? Does it seem as if your employees are deficient in creative thinking skills?

If so, how frequently do you hear these phrases around your organization?

1. It's not my idea
2. We've never thought of that before
3. We don't know how to do that
4. Things are crazy busy right now
5. We don't have the right people on board
6. It seems like it may get us in trouble
7. We've done something similar before
8. People could think it's a boondoggle
9. That will stretch us too thin
10. I don't see how we can pull it off
11. Nobody in our industry has ever done anything like that
12. They're better at it than we are
13. I don't know anything about that
14. We've got too many initiatives going on
15. It's too new for our market
16. We already doing too much in that area
17. They're not expecting anyone to do that
18. Our salespeople have too many things to sell already
19. I know what the forecast numbers say
20. It seems like such a small deal
21. We're already trying something else
22. It seems too late to do anything about it
23. We've never done anything about this
24. I don't understand why that's necessary
25. No customers are asking for that
26. It seems impossible to pull off
27. It’s not in the budget
28. It seems like overkill
29. We don't have time for that

All these phrases could end with a period. A period is final. A period is definitive. A period says, "We're done here," like nobody's business.

When you put a period at the end of any of these phrases, you are blocking potentially innovative ideas others are trying to share.

Making a change to this doesn’t require major creative thinking skills though.

If you really want to stimulate innovative ideas, instead of a period, put a comma after each of these phrases followed by, "but it could be a great idea."

A comma says there are nuances to explore, possibilities to consider, and more ideas to come.

If one of your organizational goals is developing more innovative ideas this year, implement this simplest of creative thinking skills. You can even click this graphic, print it out, and put it up around your office.

How simple is that? - Mike Brown

Learn all about how Mike Brown’s workshops on creating strategic impact can boost your organization’s success!

How will you stay up on all the ideas for developing innovation strategies if you don’t join us and subscribe to the Brainzooming newsletter? We have a ton of ideas already out here, and more are coming all the time. Sign up to gain your strategic advantage!