No One Can Guarantee A Great Idea, But We Can Increase The Odds
By Rick Rubin
Creativity is a powerful, yet nebulous, intangible, and unpredictable force. If you ask the great Rick Rubin, he’d likely say ideas exist already outside of space/time and when their time has come enter our three-dimensional universe through…someone, anyone whose vibration matches that of the idea. Deep stuff, for sure (check out his book “The Creative Act: A Way Of Being”). But this sentiment got me thinking. Great ideas happen all the time, but how much control does any individual have over a great idea occurring to him or her at any given moment? It seems to me that, since we can’t force an idea to happen, all we can do is increase the odds of one happening. So I looked at Ideasicle X anew to see if and how, exactly, it increases the odds of great ideas. Here are three ways I came up with.
four heads are better than one.
Every Ideasicle X team consists of four people, not the traditional two (writer/art director). We do this because we’ve seen the exponential effect of having four different perspectives colliding over a creative problem vs just two. And with more ideas getting batted around, there’s more inspiration shared between the team members, and, as Rubin would say, more “magnetic energy” between them.
A great idea often feels like a massive coincidence because two existing ideas collide to form a completely new one. One person’s post is internalized by someone else, inspiring a new idea that is then posted. The Ideasicle X is really just an arena that captures the attention of four people and within which coincidences between them are forced. That increases the odds.
Individual ideas plus group think.
Four creatives posting, building, and riffing
Harvard Business Review sites several studies that suggest that the traditional brainstorm, where a bunch of people gathering a room and come up with ideas together, doesn’t work. That, instead, it’s much more fruitful creatively for that same team of brainstormers to come up with ideas individually first AND THEN come together to share those ideas, discuss, build on them, etc.
Turns out, that’s exactly how the Ideasicle X web app works. The team of four take in the video briefing, are hopefully inspired. As ideas hit them, they post their individual ideas on the job’s Idea Stream and when they do the rest of the team gets an email notification and a link to the new idea. The group clicks through and can add their own builds or even riff a completely new idea.
Honestly, this individual posting and then group building and riffing across the team of four is the magic of Ideasicle X. Ideas beget ideas. Odds of great increases with every post.
Be creative how you want to be creative.
One might think that since we force the creative teams to use our virtual web app to get their ideas across, then their creativity becomes limited by the technology. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our platform allows every team member to follow their own unique creative rituals to come up with individual ideas. No one tells them how to be creative. If they get their ideas through meditation, have at it. If others get their ideas going to museums or malls, we’re all for it. If others, like Rick Rubin, turn the TV on with no sound, we have no issues with that.
Because Ideasicle X is what happens after the idea is hatched. When a team member has an idea all they need to do is pull out their phone, go to the IX Idea Stream for that job, and post the idea for the rest of the team to see. Then it’s back to meditating or museums or juggling or whatever they do to increase their own odds of coming up with great ideas.
So there’s three ways we increase the odds of great ideas. Doesn’t mean it happens every time, but I’d pit our method against others any time.
There are other smaller ways I believe the IX web app increases the odds of great ideas, not the least of which is how working virtually can greatly reduce creative fear (here’s a recent post all about that dynamic), how it’s fun for idea people and fun is a good state for creativity, and how simple we’ve made the interface. But the three described above (4 heads, individual ideas + groupthink, and creative ritual freedom) are the biggies.
Schedule a demo and I’d be happy to show you under the hood. Then you can see for yourself. Oddsmakers, be warned.
Will Burns is the Founder & CEO of the revolutionary virtual-idea-generating company, Ideasicle X. He’s an advertising veteran from such agencies as Wieden & Kennedy, Goodby Silverstein, Arnold Worldwide, and Mullen. He was a Forbes Contributor for nine years writing about creativity in modern branding. Sign up for the Ideasicle Newsletter and never miss a post like this.