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ome years ago a HR director told me: “You know, Mark, I like your creative approach and all you do for us as a creativity consultant. We appreciate a lot you helping us to think beyond the obvious and creating radical breakthroughs. It’s important and we need it. Nevertheless, I believe that in business simple ideas are as important as great ones! You should think about that and write a paper about what you call blue ideas!” 

At the time, I was very surprised! For me, blue ideas had always been a little insipid, monotonous, uninspiring and quite unexciting. Some weeks later, I discovered, frightened, that I had a dangerous tendency of neglecting them, in my professional life as well as in my personal life.

This remark definitively opened my eyes: blue ideas are absolutely necessary in our life. They make it easy, simple, effortless, and comfortable. You do not have to convince a lot a people; they are obvious for you and for the others. Blue ideas are not demanding, not risky, not stressful and in general not onerous.

These are the “just do it”, quick wins that help us to live easily and to run the business as usual. They immediately enrich the existing.

How to sell a blue idea? In the simplest way possible. Present the easiness, the quick implementation and the direct impact! The risk is overselling. So don’t emphasize the benefits, the process, the “whys” and the “”hows”. Don’t speak about agenda or action plan: do it and keep the simple idea simple!

An example: a beach restaurant wanted to create less formal relationships between their clients and the waiters. They have come up with a nice and simple idea: on the waiter’s badge, they mention the name, f.e. “Jack” and the waiter’s passion, f.e. “music”. It allows the clients to the client to start a conversation with the staff on a non intrusive basis: “Oh, Jack, you’re passionate about music. What’s your preferred band?”. Jack can simply answer: “It’s my band! I’m the singer of the XWZ, and every Saturday night we play at the Byblos Club”. Isn’t it simple and useful?

Blue ideas keep your creativity active everyday! Simple ideas count!