I tend to be an idea killer. I'm not proud of it.

I'm inclined to see how ideas fail before seeing how they will succeed. I don't like to think this way but I have a hard time re-routing my learned thought patterns.

There's a simple concept in improv comedy that I utilize to help me overcome this and become a better creative thinker.

Improv comedy is spur-of-the-moment storytelling where nothing is scripted before the live performance. For multiple actors to interact together to create a story, improv comedians rely on the idea of "Yes, and...". When one actor takes the story in a new direction their fellow comedians need to agree with it instead of inhibiting it to keep the flow of the story going. Nothing would kill a performance faster than if an improv actor blocks the creative input of their fellow actors.

Using "Yes, and" to generate better ideas.

I've borrowed the "Yes, and" concept from improv to help me brainstorm ideas with other people.

By validating an idea with a 'yes' I'm forcing myself to see the potential in the idea before jumping to my tendency to kill the idea with reasons why it wouldn't work.

It doesn't mean that every idea that is tossed out there is a 'go' but it allows for the idea to live long enough to be explored and built upon.

For example, my business partner will suggest a new idea for a marketing video to me and my mind wants to jump to the potential downsides of that idea. The "Yes, and" response validates the idea and builds upon it to see how we can explore it further:

"Yes, and we could film it in a way that we could use it on our website as well."

By starting with the "Yes, and" instead of a "But" we're moving together in a creative direction. We can continue "Yes and-ing" each other through a brainstorming session to generate new ideas to see what we can come up with.

Improvisation in my own head.

The concept works in my brainstorming sessions as well. Admittedly, it's harder to hold myself to it but it is a great tool for generating creative ideas.

As someone with a natural bent towards pessimism (an optimistic realist??) I limit the potential of my ideas by killing them too early. By intentionally setting up brainstorming sessions where I have to use "Yes, and" with my ideas I'm giving myself permission to see how even the craziest ideas could work.

Not every idea idea is worth pursuing. Yes, and that is why we need to give them space and time to develop and improve.