The Case for More Bad Ideas - Jason Keath, Keynote Speaker
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The document advocates for having more bad ideas as a way to spur innovation. It argues that bad ideas can lead to good ideas, augment other ideas, and open your mind. The author provides four steps for coming up with more bad ideas: 1) Define what constitutes a bad idea for you personally in terms of obvious or absurd ideas. 2) Require yourself to generate bad ideas. 3) Adopt a "what if" mentality. 4) Save your bad ideas rather than dismissing them. The overall message is that bad ideas have value if we learn how to utilize them effectively in the creative process.
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The Case for More Bad Ideas - Jason Keath, Keynote Speaker
- 1. the case for MORE BAD IDEAS @jasonkeath
- 2. socialfresh
- 5. "A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.” — John Augustus Shedd @jasonkeathMORE BAD IDEAS
- 7. sometimes BAD IDEAS are amazing ideas waiting for you to believe. @jasonkeathMORE BAD IDEAS
- 16. BAD IDEAS are a shortcut to innovation @jasonkeathMORE BAD IDEAS
- 17. why bad ideas? They are actually good idea They lead to good ideas (a > b > c) They augment other ideas They open your mind Bad = Opposite of great (spectrum) Less pressure @jasonkeathMORE BAD IDEAS
- 18. how to come up with more bad ideas. (four steps) @jasonkeathMORE BAD IDEAS
- 19. 1. Define bad ideas. @jasonkeathMORE BAD IDEAS
- 20. GREAT IDEAS exist somewhere between the obvious and the absurd. @jasonkeathMORE BAD IDEAS
- 21. bad ideas defined. Obvious - Too inside the box - Too simple @jasonkeathMORE BAD IDEAS
- 22. 19MinuteYoga.com
- 23. bad ideas defined. Obvious - Too inside the box - Too simple - Obvious is very personal Absurd - Too expensive - Too dangerous - Too flammable - Too millennial @jasonkeathMORE BAD IDEAS
- 26. 2. require bad ideas. @jasonkeathMORE BAD IDEAS
- 29. “I bet Mark Zuckerberg never had to hot glue cereal boxes together.” — Brian Chesky, AirBNB Cofounder @jasonkeathMORE BAD IDEAS
- 31. (start with bad ideas) @jasonkeathMORE BAD IDEAS
- 32. 3. live a WHAT IF mentality @jasonkeathMORE BAD IDEAS
- 35. “If Waffle House is closed, that’s not a good sign.” — Craig Fugate, FEMA @jasonkeathMORE BAD IDEAS
- 36. 4. save bad ideas. @jasonkeathMORE BAD IDEAS
- 41. stop saying ‘there are no bad ideas’ @jasonkeathMORE BAD IDEAS
- 42. Bad ideas exist. We’re just not taught how to use them. @jasonkeathMORE BAD IDEAS
- 43. a few free resources for MORE BAD IDEAS @jasonkeath socialfresh.com/ideas MORE BAD IDEAS
Editor's Notes
- Everything we work on today is about ideas. And even more so… everything is about new ideas. Better ideas. Great ideas. Big better best. I focus on creativity because it’s my passion. I have a BFA in photography and design. I paint. I’m a published poet. I love creating street art. I’ve worked as a creative lead and strategist at agencies. I’ve been very lucky. I’ve been given the freedom to be creative and learn how to be creative my whole life. Most of us start losing our creative ability at the age of 2. By the age of 12 we’ve lost the majority of our unbound creative thinking. The underlying problem is that we DO NOT TEACH anyone how to be creative. We teach painting or poetry or advertising. But very few people ever get bought a real process on HOW to be more creative. Process is powerful. I help businesses optimize a better creative process, and bad ideas are key to your creative process.
- I run a company called Social Fresh. We help midsize to large brands stand with better social media marketing. We do this through custom training, workshops, executive briefings and our annual conference. But with all of the training and education we do, creativity is key to making any of it work. What we focus on is standing out in the feed. There is so much content out there today. There are more tweets and youtube videos and instagram posts than any of us could ever consume. The best way to stand out is creativity. To make content with passion. Content that is memorable. To be more creative and more interesting than your competition.
- The good news is… creativity is the fun part. I focus on the fun when I work on projects. This is me shooting off a T-shirt launcher from stage a few months ago. I almost took out a multi thousand dollar lighting system with one of these. Creativity is fun. It not only improves your product or marketing or branding. It improves your morale. Your company culture. It takes the “grind” part out of the daily grind. we focus on fun
- When I do events, I focus on creative. How to stay fresh. How to keep you on your toes. The goal here is that your voice and your messaging, as a business, are not ignored.
- I’m not asking you to fail fast and break things. That’s a different talk. Most businesses can’t afford to bet big on crazy ideas. Or on bad ideas. What I’m talking about with you today is how you think about ideas. How to be more creative, how to make your company more creative, by the way you consider ideas. By changing the way you judge an idea. Anyone can become more creative. It’s about process. Ships were not meant to sit near the shore. I need you to head out to sea with me a bit. Get out of your comfort zone and fully into the learning zone, where you are regularly challenging yourself and your team. This is not about failing, and failing fast, as Silicon Valley trumpets. It is about having a healthy appetite for out-of-the-ordinary ideas, and a better process for getting there.
- Raise your hand if you know this music? The truth about Super Mario Brothers, the most successful video game of all time, is that it’s a game that features two Italian brothers, who are also plumbers, who jump on top of evil turtles to save a princess. Imagine pitching that idea to your boss and trying to get that project funded?
- Why do bad ideas help the creative process? How does it work? Look for these strange and wonderful bad ideas that can become amazing. Become a believer.
- Meet Jeff Staple. Jeff is a believer. Designer, streetwear and urban fashion leader. In 2005 he was asked by Nike to design a shoe. And saw it as an opportunity to turn the Pigeon into an anti-hero of sorts. An NYC symbol. Lacoste Polo
- People really hate pigeons though.
- And yet, Jeff went for it. The original Staple Designed Nike Pigeon Dunk
- And caused the first shoe riot.
- It was kind of serious. Cops had to stop people from stealing the shoes.
- You’ve probably seen their clothes. A lot of celebrities dig their threads. This is LeBron James in one of their shirt prints.
- He says to trust your aesthetic. He told me “if you do something well, long enough, you get use to people calling you an idiot. You trust yourself and become more confident in ignoring the naysayers. In running with an idea that might seem to go against common sense.” Some even say that Jeff has elevated the symbol of the pigeon. From “rat of the sky” to, especially in NYC” a symbol of the grit and survivor instinct needed to succeed in Manhattan. You see a ton of big brand TV ads today that feature pigeons in a much better light that we would have seen 12 years ago. Dozens in the last 5 years. Which commercials feature pigeons? Brands like…
- This is one of my favorites from JetBlue https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0Evv-PypRg
- Why do bad ideas help the creative process? How does it work?
- They are actually good ideas > Jeff Staple Pigeon Dunk A makes you think of B makes you think of C. They add on to other less bad ideas and make them more interested, more unique, more innovative. Agency brainstorms are a great example of this. An agency friend of mine told me a story about a pitch brainstorm meeting they had. And maybe you can relate to this. Early in the meeting someone suggested an idea for the client that was really bad, bad on a level where if executed it would likely hurt children. That, of course is not the idea they went with, but it put them on the path toward a solution for the client that won them a pitch. It got them thinking in a new direction.
- You don’t always have to “think outside the box”. Sometimes you just need to make a nicer box. “Simple is harder than complex.” - Steve Jobs Simple can be sexy.
- In case you get stuck and need help in a brainstorm.
- INANFI.COM
- You can’t just tell people what bad ideas are. And encourage them. You have to require it as a part of your creative process. One place where bad ideas become easier to consider is when you’ve run out of all other options. The, “nothing else is working, why not try this” mentality. I don’t recommend you wait for this scenario to find you.
- You can’t just tell people what bad ideas are. And encourage them. You have to require it as a part of your creative process. One place where bad ideas become easier to consider is when you’ve run out of all other options. The, “nothing else is working, why not try this” mentality. I don’t recommend you wait for this scenario to find you.
- Establish a safe “what if” culture. If someone has trouble adapting and they explain why an idea is bad or why it won’t work, you have to require that person to flip the story and tell you why that idea is genius. Why it WILL work.
- How many of you have ever eaten at a Waffle House? What time of day was it when you are there? Waffle House set a goal to always be opened. And because of that, they’ve created a ton of process on what to do and how to stay opened when the weather closes almost every other business in town. They have go teams, they bring in food, generators, canned drinks. They have very specific limited menus for when there is no power or no food.
- Because of that, their data is very useful if you are a federal organization trying to get an idea of where to see support teams. What areas are worst hit. Waffle House is one of several data points that FEMA uses to assess storm damage. From hurricanes, winter storms, tornados, flooding.
- From today, challenge yourself to no longer say “There’s no such thing as bad ideas.” Bad ideas are all around us. From super mario brothers, to AirBNB cereal, and back. Instead of saying there are no bad ideas. Catch yourself.
- Bad ideas exist. Teach yourself and your team HOW to use them.
- A few free resources for you at socialfresh.com/ideas Questions?