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You were afraid to say it. To say what you said and pitch what you did, it raised eyebrows. It made everyone around you wonder what you were thinking. It may not have been scandalous; it may have just been dull. Either way, it was an idea that didn’t land.
If that is the stage you are in, consider yourself lucky. In that version of not liking an idea, you still have a chance to resist the urge to bring it to production.
Sometimes “us creative types” are too stubborn to hear the naysayers in the idea phase. Sometimes we ignore the signs, take a bad idea to the final stages of production, and we end up with a product that has everyone shaking their heads.
This is going to happen. If you are a creative, you are going to pitch an idea that flops. So this discussion is not designed to try to prevent that from occurring, but rather, to discover what we can learn from those moments to press on, and push through the experience to create great moments. Moments that push us to move further while still being supported by our team, our peers, or our direct reports.
In a collaborative environment, there will be a natural divergence of ideas. There will be those who are drawn to the risks of the art, and those who are comforted by the familiar choices of proven success. It is a generalization, but for the sake of discussion, it could be said that a creative wants to take more “risks,” and a pastor wants to play it more “safe.” Usually, the team gathered is a reflection of the tastes and desires of the direct report, and the propensity to risk or play it safe will follow that pendulum.
A rejection of an idea may be as simple as that idea not hitting the mark when it comes to the personal taste of the listener. As the “idea bringer” it will be important for you to determine at that moment how important this idea, or this way of thinking, is to you. Is this an idea bursting with principle, or a throwaway? How hard and long should I fight for an idea that is tanking?
HOLD ON LOOSELY
In my experience, letting go is the most effective way to deal with the negative reaction coming from an idea that doesn’t land. As trivial or cliche as it sounds, it really is true – if you love something, set it free. If it comes back, it is yours. A great idea cannot permanently be stifled by a naysayer. If it was meant to come back into the conversation, it will. Let it go, wait, have patience. If you end up forgetting about it as you have moved on, then that will also be telling.
TRY WHAT WORKS WITH A SLIVER OF NEW
Oftentimes, those of us who prefer to “risk” get bored. Often, our bad ideas come from not wanting to repeat ourselves, and so in the name of risk, we try to launch with half-baked notions that have a ton of holes that could be easily filled with “what we usually do.” Don’t be afraid of repeating yourself – and if that sounds like heresy to a creative artist, think of it this way: do what works, and add only a “sliver” of new. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel at every brainstorm meeting – you know your taste, you know your team – do what works, and enhance it with the new idea rather than insisting that the entire thing be rebuilt from the ground up.
INCREASE YOUR OUTPUT
Hand in hand with letting go is a natural need to increase your output of ideas. The bottom line is that you won’t know a great idea until it’s had a truckload of average ideas upon which to compare. If you are not generating enough idea output, it makes the loss or the negative reaction to any one idea seem way more important and devastating than it needs to be. Churn out the ideas, get them in an idea bank, and draw from it often. Write down things you have seen in pop culture that inspire you; often, those things become a great playground for increasing your idea output.
Can this idea survive a change of style to meet in a middle ground with your collaborators? If so, great!
“WHAT IF” INSTEAD OF “WE SHOULD”
When faced with idea push-back, it is very important in a collaborative environment to ask the right questions. Many times, the way we pitch ideas reveals our level of trust in the team. If we begin our pitch with “what if” rather than “we should”, we are placing our idea in the listener’s hands – this is a vulnerable place to be, and one that shows trust. It is important that we brainstorm with fewer commands and more questions. Teaching our teams to think about our ideas in terms of “what if” will also lead to more exchange and collaboration between ideas, especially ideas that might otherwise seem to be competing for the same space.
Assuming the best of our team in the brainstorm space will bring the best ideas to the forefront. When bad ideas happen, which they will, there is a path for releasing them and setting your team up for success. Leading by example will help your entire team learn how to hold onto their own ideas loosely and gain trust that impacts the final product in profound ways.
If you want to learn more from Eric Bramlett, check out his breakout from FILO 2025 – “Humor: The Church’s Secret Weapon.”
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