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Re: Slightly OT: CSS Naked Day

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From: Tim Beadle
Date: Apr 6, 2006 4:50AM

On 06/04/06, Penny Roberts < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> And it isn't necessarily a Bad Idea just because Kynn Bartlett sees the
> negative aspects of everything.

"Death by Devil's Advocate", anyone?

"Tom Kelley--general manager of IDEO--believes that "devil's advocate
may be the biggest innovation killer in America today." We've all been
in a meeting where a passionate idea is put forth but someone plays
devil's advocate and drains the life out of the room. Invoking "the
awesome protective power" lets the devil's advocate be incredibly
negative and slash your idea to shreds, all while appearing not only
innocent but reasoned, balanced, intelligent... all attributes loaded
with business "goodness". Whew! Thank GOD for the devil's advocate, or
we'd all be off blundering with our stupid ideas, oblivious to the
insurmountable problems we were too clueless to see.

And it's that attitude--that notion that people can use "playing
devil's advocate" with impunity--that Kelley believes is so damaging.
In the October edition of Fast Company magazine, there's an excerpt
from Kelley's upcoming book The Ten Faces of Innovation which is all
about ways to defeat the devil's advocate to keep innovation alive."

http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2005/10/death_by_devils.html

Tim