In Banishing Negativity, Kris Bordessa describes a very interesting technique: Don't allow anyone to play devil's advocate on your team.
Instead task them with proposing ideas to solve the problem that they planned to target before mentioning it.
This is not to say they should ignore potential or perceived problems. It is to say they should look for solutions to predicted oversights before denouncing the proposed ideas.
"One of my colleagues uses this technique in group meetings and it works extremely well.
"When someone tries to shoot down an idea with some unanswerable objection, my colleague asks them to submit a counter-proposal which modifies the idea suggested by the other person.
"Aside from solving the devil's advocate problem, it accomplishes an even greater objective—that of ending the meeting with an idea that is actionable for the entire group with assigned action items. Without this technique, at the end of the meeting you typically go out with no action plans, because all the time was taken-up by the devil's advocate squashing someone's idea and killing the productivity of the group—not to mention morale."
Gabriel Lames refers to this character change as an angel's advocate...
"An Angel's Advocate first looks at and for the benefits of any proposed plan—not for what is wrong with it.
"An Angel's Advocate first looks at the ways in which an idea might work—not the ways in which it will inevitably fail.
"An Angel's Advocate views ideas from a positive perspective, suggesting improvements only when appropriate.
"An Angel's Advocate first identifies three good things about any plan or proposal, before considering anything negative.
"Think about the difference an Angels' Advocate would mean to your next meeting. Think about the turn around that would be created by first looking at everything through a positive light!"
My favorite perspective comes from Renata Guizzardi in Mathemagenic...
"There are two distinct ways to collaborate with someone on their research work: the 'and' way and the 'but' way.
"In the 'and' way, one focuses on the positive aspects of the ideas being presented—adding new insights on top of them.
"Conversely, in the 'but' way, one identifies the limitations of the proposed ideas, focusing solely on negative aspects.
"Although both ways are valid, there is significant risk in following the 'but' method, since looking at the obstacles before an idea has sufficiently matured may induce a creativity block."
As you can see, solving the problem is not as difficult as originally thought, but in all fairness, let's again ask this question:
"Is doing the devil's bidding really a bad thing?"
According to Wikipedia, the devil's advocate approach was designed for learning.
"...an instructional technique in which one person argues a position that another is less familiar with, thereby teaching proper argument."
So, at what point did this good idea go bad?
Kathy Sierra says the devil is in the details...
"Part of the problem is simply the timing of the devil's advocate invocation; if the devil's pet jumps in at the earliest stage, the idea never has a hope in hell.
"...there's a big difference between someone crushing an idea based on spinning possible negative scenarios versus someone who voices a genuine concern backed with real facts."
In Tom Kelly's book, 10 Faces of Innovation, he says...
"What makes this negative persona so dangerous is that it is such a subtle threat. Every day, thousands of great new ideas, concepts, and plans are nipped in the bud by devil's advocates. Why is this so damning? Because a devil's advocate encourages idea wreckers to assume the most negative possible perspective—seeing only the downside, the problems, the disasters-in-waiting. Once those floodgates open, they drown new initiatives in negativity."
Today, even the team that invented devil's advocates concurs.
Traditionally, before the Catholic church declared someone a saint, it appointed a Devil’s Advocate. That person’s role was to take a skeptical view, laying out all possible arguments for the proposed saint being denied recognition.
Pope John Paul II abolished Devil's Advocates in 1983 after nearly 400 years. Since that time, over 500 saints have been canonized, a yearly rate over 20 times faster than any other time in history.
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