How To Generate More Ideas With The Deliberate Debate Technique

Conflict, controversy and debate might improve your idea generation.

Criticism is hard to get and easy to give. It’s also a powerful tool to create great work.

Most people don’t like criticism. They avoid it, they reject it, and they’ll do almost anything to keep from receiving any feedback that might be less than 100% positive about their ideas or work products.

The problem is that most teams are trained in a culture of praise and positive reinforcement. They aren’t prepared for criticism or debate. And when they get it, they often respond defensively or shut down completely.

If you’re not willing to receive some level of critical feedback on your ideas, then you’re probably not going to produce much in the way of truly innovative solutions. No one will be willing (or able) to challenge your thinking with constructive criticism.

If we can encourage our teams to challenge each other and generate new ideas, we might produce better results.

In this blog post, we explore why more criticism might lead to more ideas when to explore this in your design process, the importance of your team relationships, practical strategies and protocols you can use to implement this approach.