One of the most innovative organisations in the world, IDEO, articulates the devils advocate as someone whom is hugely critical of ideas before they are proven; those whom don’t want to hear them out at all and refuse to entertain the human capacity to dream. They stifle innovation at its very core and negate the very essence of creativity. So when someone says “Let me play devils advocate for a minute”, this is a prophetic warning for you to simply walk out! Just as grandma says “listen in one ear and out the other”. These are the types of people we want to kick out the door before any meeting even begins! I mean, who wants to be stifled on their real path to innovation, which is through people! You want to expand your repertoire by leveraging the ‘innovation personas’ and catalyse accidental but serendipitous ideas!
So how do we battle this? This devils advocate is not a proponent of constructive criticism. They do not encourage critical thinking to foster team members tackling problems through the lens of innovation. The devils advocate seldom takes a ‘real stand’ and they tear down an idea with ‘clever criticism’. IDEO asserts that they “they often exhibit mean spirited negativity associated with that role”. They are the archetype destroyers of faith and will never allow you to reach your potential!
To battle against this devil, for starters, someone should immediately put forward insight from the front line; citing an inherent customer issue that is ongoing or radically transform a system/process that is causing much grief to internal stakeholders. You need to be a cross pollinator, as IDEO says, whereby you harness the reservoir of energy waiting to be tapped! Here, you don’t have to fit into traditional categories like Engineer, Marketer or Project Manager. New roles, like Chief Knowledge Officer, Augmented Intelligence Analyst, Dynamic Coordinator and other future role types are on the rise and these are surely the ones you will need to adopt in your frame of mind. In fact, you need to ‘draw associations and connections between seemingly unrelated ideas or concepts to break new ground’. This is an enabling process, as one then becomes effectively, a T shaped individual with breadth of knowledge in many fields BUT depth in one area of expertise!
Personally, I believe the internet provides a cornucopia of opportunities for self learning, harnessing collective intelligence, connecting ideas from the outside world, drawing abstractions and metaphors to provoke deep expertise fused with scientific enquiry. Remember, a lively piece of digital content can go viral and spread like wildfire and therefore, taking this notion, one can always contextually appreciate the tenets of cross-pollination. The sky truly is the limit here! Does management focus on the imperfections or the promise? Is leadership harnessing extraordinary results from ordinary people? These are all paradigms that need to be continually challenged and also ensconced!
So whilst the reality is that the devils advocate may never go away, however on a good day, the 10 personas can keep them in their place ( Or tell them to go to hell)! I touched on the personas in this article.