So you attended that tactical planning meeting. Everything was high fives, energy in the room. Man, you were going to tackle the world and solve the most dramatic problems your company faces. There were enough ideas to paper the wall. The facilitator ran out of high priced ink in his Marks-a-Lot.

But now, you are two weeks down the road and nothing has changed. Not one iota. What the hell happened?

I see companies get so involved with brainstorming that they fail to become judgmental enough to come up with the ONE BEST IDEA that will solve the problem. All the ideas seem so creative, the team cannot say no. Rather than adopt one strategy, rejecting all the others, and following through, the team languishes in the Jacuzzi of ideas.

Brainstorming, to be effective, requires the team to suspend judgment and accept all ideas. That’s perfect for brainstorming. But, sooner or later, a real strategy must develop that requires analysis, judgmental thinking, rejection of marginal ideas, combining strengths of related ideas and surgically carving away the ineffective positions.

Identifying the ONE BEST IDEA is a separate step from brainstorming, and absolutely necessary for effective action. -TF