If you ever ask my team when they run for cover, they would immediately say when she starts a sentence with, ‘What if’.
I have to admit, I use this phrase fairly often when I sense there’s more we can be doing or when I really want to challenge the way a business is doing something.
When we do ask that question – What If ? – surprisingly, or perhaps not, we come up with so many ideas. What if ..
- I stopped producing that report – would anyone notice?
- We opened only 4 days a week? I dropped my website?
- We didn’t have an office – could my staff do their jobs?
- We only used Facebook – no email, no paper, or intranet?
- We had a best ‘what-ifs’ of the year competition running?
The trouble isn’t really generating the possibilities. You will end up with a list of ideas, some more plausible than others, because that’s just how it works. The problem will be being paralysed or overwhelmed by the list. I invented a simple ranking system to help put some order on the list. The ranking system looks like this…
| Points | Description | Follow Up |
| 10 | Of course it’ll work | Why are you even bothering to think out – Just Do It |
| 7 | I reckon it’ll work | Might need to cite some examples or some numbers from the finance beanies |
| 5 | Like Government | Approximately fifty-fifty chance of delivering result. |
| 2 | If I cross my fingers and squeeze my eyes really tight… | Put it on the desperate list! |
| 0 | NO | Bin It |
It’s a good idea to rank the ideas quickly without too much thought by using your first instinctive reaction to the suggestion – you understand your business better than anyone else, so TRUST yourself!
Now start working on the ideas ranked 7 or higher to look at what or where they improve your business and start making the changes.
So if you’re ever wondering how to get some ideas, or looking to resolve a problem, ask yourself: ‘what if’.
What if I called this brainstorming?