SYNOPSIS
What book are we doing?
A Technique for Producing Ideas, by James Webb Young
Why are we doing it?
Because it’s about what we do: dot connecting and the process for idea generation
How can we use it?
To remind yourself that you’re in a creative role; planning requires idea generation
To produce ideas in your daily work (follow the Technique)
To help make intentional choices about how you and your colleagues relate to and generate ideas
“I’m trying to free your mind, Neo. But I can only show you the door. You’re the one that has to walk through it.”
– Morpheus, The Matrix
When I was a student at Miami Ad School, I started most days with a run. Some of my classmates asked how I could find time to for this frivolous activity when we had such a heavy workload. I often wrestled with this question myself. It felt wrong to walk past piles of work and unresolved problems on my desk to go run the streets and boardwalks of Miami Beach.
When we’re faced with a problem to solve, it makes logical sense to focus on it more and to think harder. It feels like any time away from the problem is wasted time. But the act of stepping away and letting our unconscious go to work doesn’t distract us from having ideas; it distracts us for having ideas.
James Webb Young explains this well. Sometime around 1940, he wondered, “Can a formula or technique be developed in answer to the question: How do you get ideas?” A Technique for Producing Ideas is his answer.
Young insists that producing ideas is “just as definite a process as the production of Fords.” He views it as just as predictive, operative, and learnable as an assembly line. While that may sound very rigid and mechanical, he refers to producing ideas as an art which requires training the mind in two things:
- Principles
- Method
Two Fundamental Principles:
- An idea is a combination of old elements
- The ability to create new combinations is heightened by the ability to see relationships[1][2]
The Five-Step (sequential) Method:
STEP 1: Gather raw material
- Both specific knowledge and general knowledge
- This is a combination of current project-specific gathering as well as a continuous, life-long process
STEP 2: Consciously work over these materials in your mind
- Listen for meaning (rather than looking for it).
- Partial ideas will come to you now. Write them down.
STEP 3: Unconsciously incubate/synthesize
- Walk away.
- Make no direct effort.
- Drop the subject and try to put the problem out of your mind.
- Turn the problem over to your unconscious mind.
STEP 4: Have the idea
- Eureka! Out of nowhere, the idea will appear.
STEP 5: Shape & develop the idea for practical use
- Submit the idea to the criticism of the judicious.
- As you share, the idea will expand and evolve.
This all sounds so easy. Follow the principles and method above. You’ll be filled with intuition. New insights will emerge. The ideas will flow. It seems like Young’s sharing of this simple technique, while generous, may have been self-destructive – a clear path to putting himself out of work. It was not. “I broadcast this formula with no real fear of glutting the market in which I make my living.” He knew that his formula was safe to share widely because:
- Many people won’t believe it because it’s so simple.
- Of those who believe it, few will have the discipline or fortitude to do it.
The idea of trying to convince non-believers seems like an exercise in futility. But for those who do believe, there’s hope. While the question, “How do you get ideas?” is an important one, I believe the more interesting and more important one is, “Once we know how, why don’t we do it?”
Early in A Technique for Producing Ideas, Young references Pareto’s claim in Mind and Society that there are two types of people in the world (which I refer to as Mindsets): speculators who are “constantly preoccupied with the possibilities of new combinations,” and rentiers (aka stockholders) who are “routine, steady-going, unimaginative, conserving people.”[3] Later, Young discusses the importance of words as symbols, and reminds us that words are among the most powerful symbols we have. We use words as strong holders of (often unconscious) shared meaning within cultures and groups. A change of a word can change emotion and meaning significantly.[4]
I believe that these two principles: Mindsets and Words as symbols, in conjunction with two questions: Are you holding yourself back? and Is something around you (e.g., agency culture) holding you back? serve as a useful starting point for answering for yourself, “Once we know about this valuable thing, why don’t we do it?”
With these two sets of parameters, I’ve created the Implementation Assessment Matrix as an exploratory tool. The discussion here isn’t meant to be a complete analysis or exhaustive list of questions to explore in the matrix; it’s meant to illustrate the premise and how this model can be used for evaluating your specific situation.
Through asking and answering your own questions in each quadrant and the gaps and congruencies between quadrants, you’ll discover: It’s me. It’s you. Or it’s us.
It’s me: I can change that. Or not. In an environment that embraces this Technique for Producing Ideas, it’s up to me to decide whether I will use it or not. Maybe I’m content with not. Or maybe I want to learn how to change.
It’s you: It’s virtually impossible to produce ideas in an environment that suppresses them. If I’m a speculator in a renier culture, for example, or if I believe ideas come from a process that includes a “forget-about-it-for-a-while” step and work in a culture that believes you’re not working unless you’re thinking hard at you’re at your desk or in a meeting, this may not be a fit for me. As Annie Duke says, “Success does not lie in sticking to things. It lies in picking the right thing to stick to and quitting the rest.”[5]
It’s us: Maybe you’re a rentier in a happily rentier culture. If so, you may want to stay the course. Develop ideas and run the business in whatever way you’re comfortable. Don’t use A Technique for Producing Ideas if it’s not for you and your agency culture. Or maybe you’re in an agency or client environment that just hasn’t realized there’s another way. Maybe they, like you, are open to change and just need help getting there. If you both want change, create a plan to do so together. Use the JWT Planning Cycle[6] as a guide: decide where you want to go, define how you’re going to get there, and continue to assess whether you’re getting there or not.
James Webb Young didn’t call his book The Technique for Producing Ideas. He called it A Technique. I like his technique, believe in it, and find it useful. You may be happy with how you work now. Your agency and clients may also be content with that approach. In The Matrix, Morpheus said, “There is a difference between knowing the path and walking it.” After reading A Technique for Producing Ideas, you’ll know Young’s suggested path. It’s up to you to decide if you’ll walk it.
[1] We discussed the importance of building and connecting dots on the GrowOp episode, How to use reading to power your planning(https://open.spotify.com/episode/2SK1iutumkCOPbSMgCvZb3?si=47a2f5770a06468d)
[2] In his Foreword to A Technique for Producing Ideas, Bill Bernbach notes that Einstein referred to this process of creating new combinations as intuition and considered it the only path to new insights.
[3] The idea of speculators and reniers is similar to the opposing Survive and Thrive mindsets explained by Kotter in Change: How Organizations Achieve Hard-to-Imagine Results in Uncertain and Volatile Times.
[4] We’ll explore the topic of collectively shared unconscious meanings in more detail in next month’s review of Clataire Rapaille’s The Culture Code.
[5] Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away, by Annie Duke
[6] From JWT’s Planning Guide, March 1974.
