How "yes, and" can boost creativity

Summary: An improv exercise called "Remember that time we went to Mexico" can boost creativity.

You’ve heard of WordPress, but have you heard of WordCamp? It’s a great opportunity to learn more about WordPress, but also to get some general ideas about content, publishing, e-commerce, and many more things. It’s worth your time even if you don’t use WordPress.

I did a talk there a few years ago. I have a link to a recording of that talk in the Resources tab of KrehbielGroup.com, and I’ll link it below.

One of the sessions I attended that day was something like “what developers can learn from improv.” The speaker led the group through a few basic improv exercises, one of which was “Remember that time we went to Mexico.”

Everybody picked a partner, and the first person said, “Remember that time we went to Mexico,” and the second person had to reply “Yes, and …” then provide some additional detail about the trip, like, “Yes, and you wore that fabulous red dress.”

You had to affirm everything the other person said, and in the process, you built a story about a trip to Mexico.

One of the interesting things about this exercise is that you’re not just waiting for your chance to speak to push your own agenda. You have to listen to the other person, and you have to keep in mind all the growing details about the trip — because you’re not allowed to contradict any part of the story.

You can’t dismiss the other person or his ideas. You have to incorporate them into the story you’re both working on.

It reminds me a little of a comment I heard at a BIMS conference. One of the speakers said one of the biggest human needs is to be validated and understood. “Remember that trip to Mexico” certainly does that.

But what does this have to do with publishers?

Imagine scenarios in which you impose a “yes, and” rule on the conversation, where no one can contradict or dismiss anything any other participant said. What might happen as a result?

Let’s say you’re working on a new website design, and someone says “we should make the whole site red,” which is, admittedly, a stupid idea. But you’re not allowed to say that it’s a stupid idea. You have to think of a “yes, and” reply — some way to un-stupid the suggestion.

For example you might say, “Yes, and think of all the shades, tones, and textures we could employ that are all red.”

What’s been accomplished here? You’ve moved from thinking about color to thinking about shades, tones, and textures, which might not have come up at all. Now people are thinking, “yeah, there are lots of ways to distinguish things visually even when you use the same color.” It might get you thinking about design for the color-blind, or … who knows what?

An all-red site is still a dumb idea, but the “yes, and” mindset forced the people in the meeting to be creative, which brought up a new and useful concept.

That’s what “remember that trip to Mexico” does — it forces you to be creative. It’s so easy to say no and shut something down. That’s the opposite of creative. It takes work to say “yes, and.” You have to try to find the jewel hidden in the garbage.

Obviously, this is not the right method to reach a final decision on an idea. Sometimes you do have to say no. But it is a useful method to get new ideas, and as an added benefit, it’s fun, and people feel that their views have been heard.

Resources

WordCamp
https://central.wordcamp.org/

My talk at WordCamp
https://wordpress.tv/2017/11/03/greg-krehbiel-how-kiplinger-used-wordpress-for-a-paid-digital-service/