Who Invited the Devil’s Advocate?

 

Seth Godin mentioned the devil’s advocate recently, and it hit a nerve. I do it all the time; I say…”I’m just playing devils advocate, but ….”, by which, of course, I mean, “I’m about to be really negative, i’m going to undermine what you just said, and please don’t take this the wrong way…BUT…..” .

I’m not alone in this; we all do it. For the most part, we feel like we are doing a service; often it’s a ‘Phew!’ moment, when we think, “Man! We might have developed that idea and got it really far before we thought of that problem! What a waste that would have been!”

I’ve talked about ideas quite a bit here, and the danger of bottling them up or restraining them for whatever reason. Often, I’ve realised that it’s the devil’s advocate that’s at fault. He’s not called the devil’s advocate without reason; The Devil is dangerous, and being too afraid of failure is dangerous too. Jump, I say. Take a risk, let your mind roam free without inviting the devil’s advocate in. Not always, and not forever. But for a while at least.

The point at which we bring in the devil’s advocate into the process is really the key. If we bring him in too early, we restrain the flow too much and cut off avenues that deserve exploration. If we bring him in too late, we risk all that time wasting we fear so much. Let’s not uninvite the devil’s advocate altogether – maybe just tell him the party starts a little later, and that he’s welcome then.

Claire