Page 171 - THE DO-IT-YOURSELF LOBOTOMY Open Your Mind to Greater Creative Thinking

162 REDEFINING THE ACCEPTABLE RANGE

Limited Acceptable Range

New ideas
Old ideas beyond the
acceptable
New ideas range
within the
acceptable
range

Acceptable range Unacceptable range

Then and there it occurred to me that I had seen this circumstance
before, a company or individual who didn’t pull the trigger on new
ideas but was nonetheless happy with the brainstorming session con-
ducted to find new ideas. I had been part of this strange phenomenon
before, but now I more fully understood it. They had expanded their
acceptable range of ideas. They had done it by coming up with an
abundance of new ideas, many of which were beyond the previous
fringe of acceptability, and, by contrast, the old fringe ideas now
seemed less scary and risky. In very much the same way as Lewis and
Clark’s exploration of the great Northwest made the previous frontier
boundary seem less remote and more welcoming. A lot of things fell
into place for me that day.

TURNING UPTHE SOIL

With most brainstorming sessions I’ve been involved in, we are looking
for a great many ideas, whether it’s new products or services, promo-
tional ideas, customer support, or whatever.