Page 78 - Free the Idea Monkey

Here are three ways it could work:
1. Junior to Senior. Grab a very junior person in your

company. The perfect candidate is someone smart, creative,
brave—and too naïve to worry about failing. Take your tough-
est challenge and ask your junior associate to generate as
many ideas and questions about the challenge as possible.
Tell them they are going to get points for quality and quantity.

While they are working on their project for you, work on
their toughest challenge.

Give yourself a few hours and then get together to discuss
your ideas. You may be surprised at how much you both learn.

2. Department Switch. Try the same exercise as above
with people from opposite departments. It’s amazing how
much you will learn watching the folks from operations
handle the biggest marketing challenges and vice versa. For
example, the operations people will appreciate the many ways
a problem may be solved—they often feel as though they
have already determined best practices—while the marketing
people are often stunned at how much more efficiently they
could be accomplishing their goals.

3. Boss/Industry Swap. Here’s the best one of all: switch
leadership roles. Doing this inside your company will produce
similar results, but with more fireworks because of the bigger
egos involved. And if you want to have a whole bunch of fun
and learn way more, find a company in an unrelated industry
and do a job swap. What would a senior marketer from retail
see in your manufacturing company?

So, the next time you feel a lack of energy or ideas within
your teams, yell “Rotate!” and watch the magic happen.

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