The list of can’t-dos in our industry is getting longer and longer. As brand builders and marketers we must look for bold new things we can do. The need for true innovation is greater than ever. That dynamic makes it easy to get caught up in round after round of the What-Ifs vs. the Buts.

We’ve all witnessed this face-off in conference rooms, in hallways, in brainstorms, in strategy sessions, in brand reviews. It usually goes like this: someone lobs up a big What-If idea into the room where it twinkles like pixie dust in mid-air for a glorious moment while everyone visualizes it and then POP! It explodes like a clay pigeon. Shot down by a But.

Well, you might argue, not every What-If is a good What-If. Some What-Ifs are unconventional, implausible or downright crazy. Yes, that is true—like when Tamiflu partnered with the Warner Brother’s movie, Happy Feet: unconventional, implausible. And crazy? Like a fox.

Just think. Every time we can reduce the But-to-What-If ratio, we can tilt our teams toward can-do innovation. So, to that end, since there is no med-reg slapdown for negative thinking, now there is the But Citation:

Feel free to download as many But Citations as you like and hand them out to offenders, especially those you work with who are on Auto-But.

And if you have any other ideas to keep the can-do going in your team, please share!