What is holding you back you man idiot?

In one of the classes we teach at FSU, Creative Strategy 1, our advertising students are working on their final project for White House Black Market. The students are excited but nervous as they'll be presenting to some pretty Senior Level Dudes and Dude-ettes from WHBM. But most of all they are competing against each other. Their final project is to develop creative executions in traditional and non traditional media and provide research and reasoning for their strategy.

We've been meeting with groups hearing their ideas for the past few weeks and the one issue that seems consistent among all of them is a fear to explore wild and far places in their minds. They aren't going far enough with their ideas and their brainstorming sessions, settling for the typical bland messages and images that go with the fashion advertising or stopping with the first few concepts they bump into. They are afraid of getting too out there as it could be too shocking, weird or whatever. They are worried if they present an idea that is too unlike what WHBM always does it will be rejected on the basis that it is simply too different.

We've taken them through the Six Hat process and they know green hat is for ideas not concerns but they can't really help themselves, they are editing themselves before they speak and even before they think.

After our consultations last night it reminded me how hard it can be for people/organizations/groups to really let go. To imagine things that are impossible, ridiculous and silly. I can think of many Six Hat sessions that start off where anything goes and people can't deal with it. They can't let go of their assumptions.

I remember my high school drama teacher's complaint during A MidSummer Night's Dream. I was playing Bottom, and she kept telling me that I wasn't going far enough. What she meant was I wasn't giving her anything to work with, she could rein me in if she needed to but I wasn't giving her anything to work with. She'd say, "you are playing a man idiot who was turned into a donkey by a fairy, What is holding you back?" I kept trying to play Bottom in our world, in my world, the world that has limits, but if you can go to a place that men can be turned into donkeys you allow yourself a certain freedom with your ideas.

You have to have ideas to edit. If you're figuring out how to reach more customers, increase your fundraising efforts or if you're creating a campaign for a tough industry like fashionyou MUST have some extraordinary ideas, some weird ideas and some bizzaro ones too. Pull back later go nuts now. Imagine you're in the world of a man idiot turned into a donkey by a fairy now what are your ideas?