Ah, brainstorming. The corporate rite of passage where creativity goes to die. It usually involves a room full of well-intentioned people offering ideas that feel familiar but not fresh. Why does this happen? Because most people stick to the “safe zone,” avoiding anything that might make waves, or worse, ruffle feathers.
But here’s the problem: safe ideas don’t change the game. If you want ideas that truly shake things up, you’ve got to do something radical. You have to give your team permission not just to think differently but to think outrageously. And to do that, you need to encourage them to come up with ideas so bold, they might just get them fired.
How to Generate ‘Firing-Worthy’ Ideas
Here’s how it works: start your brainstorming session as usual, letting your team throw out the predictable, respectable suggestions. Once those are on the table, and everyone’s energy is thoroughly underwhelming, it’s time to shake things up completely.
Tell your team: “Now I want you to pitch ideas so outrageous, so audacious, they could theoretically get you fired.”
That’s when the magic happens. Pretty quickly, the energy in the room goes up dramatically, people start laughing, and ideas start to fly. Without the usual guardrails, the brain feels unrestrained. Instead of staying within the confines of “reasonable,” your team starts coming up with wild, bold, and totally unfiltered ideas:
- “What if we launched this product in zero gravity?”
- “What if we eliminated this process entirely?”
- “What if we let customers design their own versions and just sold that?”
When you mandate that people let the irrational, crazy, or uncomfortable act as their guide, fear dissipates, and creative thinking better takes hold.
Permission to Dream Big
By removing the fear of judgment, you unlock your team’s ability to think without limits. People stop worrying about how their ideas will be perceived or whether they’ll sound ridiculous. Instead, they focus on possibility.
“When we realized our brainstorm sessions were resulting in lackluster innovations and leaned towards incremental improvements versus transformational ideation, we knew we had to remove the shackles that were surrounding people’s brains,” says Victoria Platt, Vice President, Airline Strategy & Transformation, SITA. “So, in our next session, we told participants to imagine that privacy laws don’t exist, there are no state or federal regulations, industry standards don’t matter, the budget is boundless, resources are boundless, and it doesn’t matter if the technology for an idea doesn’t yet exist. The idea was to just think BIG and pull back to reality later.”
“In that next session,” Platt says, “40 strong ideas were generated . . . four of which are currently being developed for radical cost savings and provocative revenue generation. We took a bold chance and got bold results.”
And no, you’re not actually going to act on ideas that would get anyone fired (obviously, no one’s suggesting a new policy involving legal loopholes or ethically questionable practices). However, what you will get are new hunting grounds you never thought to explore. Often, these “firing-worthy” concepts aren’t as impractical as they seem; they’re just bold enough to challenge the norm.
Apple’s modern designs didn’t come from playing it safe. The company dared to envision products that were invisible to the eye—sleek, minimalist, and without the clutter of traditional gadgets or overwritten marketing copy. At the time, those ideas sounded ridiculous. Today, they’re the gold standard of design.
From Crazy to Commercially Viable
Here’s the best part of the exercise: outrageous ideas are what unlock brilliance. Once you weed out irrelevant concepts and focus on ones with actual potential, your team can start refining them into actionable concepts:
- Killing a process? It could lead to improved customer-service support that no one thought possible.
- Letting customers design their own versions of your products? Perhaps it evolves into a customizable product line you can charge much higher prices for next year.
The point is to remove the handcuffs on ideas that hold us back. Risk often leads to reward when you’re willing to take that first leap.
Pushing Boundaries as a Practice
Entrepreneur Jim Rohn said: “If you’re not willing to risk the unusual, you’ll have to settle for the ordinary.” Too many teams stick to the sensible and safe, producing ideas that are fine but forgettable. But extraordinary results come from taking chances and from daring to color outside the lines.
Encouraging your team to pitch ideas that would “get them fired” isn’t just about shaking up a meeting: it’s about shifting the entire culture. It signals that boldness is valued, creativity is celebrated, and innovation is required.
Stop having mediocre brainstorms. Give your team the freedom (and the challenge) to pitch the kind of concepts that just might get them fired. You’ll get lots of laughs and some truly wild suggestions. But you’ll also get something even better: the kind of thinking that redefines the game.