Brainstorm questions not ideas
I often find most people are <i>really</i> bad at taking a step back and thinking freely about the problem at hand — especially if they are stressed out. And they (we) are stressed out all the time, because apparently it is considered good managment to not consider what happens when you put pressure on people.<p>I tend to say: "You cannot afford to go fast if you are in a hurry, because this is where stuff goes wrong. And if you are in a hurry you cannot afford stuff going wrong."<p>If you are a manager and you want your people to deliver the most innovative, creative, best solution you <i>have</i> to lift stress of them and that also means freeing them of their daily duties and giving them the space to think openly about solutions. If your shop will collapse when you relive the best people of their daily duties for a week that means you shop is badly managed.