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I recently talked with a leader at a large organization about bringing me in. She'd seen me speak at a conference and liked the idea of "Yes, And." (Of course, who wouldn’t? 😉 ) Her organization really wants their people to think outside the box and to think differently. They just aren't sure how to make that happen.
I've heard this before, more than once. Almost everybody wants their people to think differently.
And each time I hear it, two questions come up for me: Does the organization really know what it means by "think differently"? And: What happens the first time somebody actually does it?
Starting with the people
Her original request was simple. She wanted one presentation for the whole organization; some people in the room and a lot more watching virtually.
I asked her whether she wanted this to go deeper, and she said yes. Now we're talking about something more ongoing: multiple sessions with employees, and possibly some work with managers.
I asked that question because of the second question above. A presentation can get people excited about thinking differently, and I believe that matters. People need to believe they can do something before they'll try it.
But here’s where the rubber meets the road: The presentation ends, everyone goes back to work, and eventually someone has an idea. That's the moment that matters.
Different ideas are inconvenient
Consider what "thinking differently" actually produces: ideas that are unfamiliar and untested. Some are half-formed and some are wrong. Plenty of them would create extra work for somebody. A few are downright terrible.
That's not a bug. It's what different means. If every new idea fit neatly into how things already work, you wouldn't need an initiative to get people thinking differently.
So the real test of whether an organization wants new thinking isn't the kickoff, the slogan or the all-hands. It's what happens when someone brings an idea forward.
In improv, we'd call that idea an “offer.” An offer is anything in improv you say or do to contribute to the scene or story. There are strong offers and weak offers, but what ultimately determines how well the offer works is the response.
If the response is "Yes, but," the scene stops. Yes, but we tried that. Yes, but there's no budget. Yes, but that's not how we do things here. Any one of those might be true. But each one also teaches the person something about what happens to new ideas around here.
Most people don't need that lesson more than once or twice.
Another conversation, same week
The same week, I talked with someone at a completely different organization. She'd been put in charge of employee engagement. Her people weren't happy with recent changes, and leadership wanted to know what to do about it.
So she did exactly what they'd asked. She went off, put together a proposal, and brought it back.
They said no (shocking, right?).
The organization had also held a town hall where employees spoke up about what they were unhappy about. People spoke. The organization listened. Nothing was done with any of it (even more shocking, right?).
If you're an employee watching that, the lesson is pretty clear: they asked for your voice, and nothing changed when they got it.
You don't need a survey to predict what happens the next time they ask.
The quiet result
When ideas keep hitting walls, people don't usually storm into the boss's office. They don't push back. They just stop offering. They do their jobs, sit through the meetings and keep their ideas to themselves.
From the outside, that can look fine. It's quiet, and nobody is complaining.
But it isn't buy-in. It's apathy. And apathy is much harder to spot than resistance, because there's nothing to see.
Then the organization launches an initiative to get people to think differently, and wonders why it isn't working.
What it actually takes
If you want your people to think differently, the work isn't only theirs. Much of it falls on the people who hear the ideas.
You have to "Yes, And" people when they bring something new instead of "yes, but"-ing them.
That doesn't mean agreeing to every idea. "Yes, And" was never about saying yes to everything. It means hearing the idea before you react. You stay curious about it and acknowledge the person who brought it, even when the idea itself isn't ready. Then you look for what's useful in it and build from there.
You also have to support them, and you have to actually implement some of the ideas. Not all of them. But if nothing ever happens, people notice.
You also have to give them autonomy. It's hard to think differently when every step requires three approvals.
And perhaps most important, you have to give them room to fail. Different ideas won't all work. If the first one that flops gets someone embarrassed or punished, you've taught everyone watching to play it safe. That's what psychological safety comes down to: whether people believe it's okay to try.
A few questions worth asking
Before your next initiative about innovation or new thinking, try asking yourself and your leadership team these questions:
What do we actually mean by "think differently"? If leadership can't describe it, employees can't do it.
What happened to the last new idea someone brought us? Did they hear back? Did anything change? Do they know why or why not?
What happens here when a new idea fails? Think about the actual answer, not the one in the values statement.
Where are we asking for input that we have no intention of acting on? If the answer is "probably somewhere," it might be better to stop asking until you're ready to respond.
And the next time someone brings you something new, before the "but" comes out, try:
"Yes, and what would it take to try a small version of that?"
You don't have to commit to the whole idea. You just have to keep the scene going for one more line.
Asking is the easy part
Asking your people to think differently is easy. You can put it in a slide deck by Friday.
The harder part is deciding, ahead of time, what you'll do when they actually take you up on it.
P.S. Any of this sound familiar? This is exactly the kind of thing I help organizations with. Maybe you're asking your people to think differently and the ideas aren't coming. Or maybe they're coming but then quietly going nowhere. Sometimes that starts with a keynote to kick off an initiative. Sometimes it's training that gives people the mindset and the tools to contribute. And sometimes it's working with managers on what happens after someone speaks up. Which, as you just read, is where a lot of this lives or dies. If you'd like to talk through what's going on in your organization, just text, call, or email me now. I'm happy to start with a conversation about what's actually happening and whether I can help.