The UK Foreign Office is currently bending over backwards to apologize like mad to the Pope. It’s an interesting turn of events given the long and twisted history of anti-Catholicism in the UK. The short version of the story: the Pope is coming to the UK soon for the first official state visit by the Vatican since 1982. In a lower level planning meeting at the Foreign Office, a half dozen people brainstormed ideas regarding how to handle the visit. Some of the ideas were clearly Jokes, and should never have been made public. Some of  the ideas were serious as well, which indicates that the purpose of the brainstorm was not to embarass the goverment. There was a sincere attempt made to think up something good.

Well, somebody with an axe to grind, or just very poor judgement, published the memo and the Jokey ideas were made public.  The somebody who let the politically incorrect data out of the bag is a 23 year old Oxford graduate named Steven Mulvain. Amazingly, Mr. Mulvain will keep his job in spite of an international flap. This is either a sign of restraint, or, a further indication that while they publicly denounce the jokey ideas demeaning the Pope, deep down they think it’s funny. Apparently the memo was widely circulated at lower levels of government before it was leaked.

The joke ideas included — a new Pope Benedict condom brand, a visit to cut the ribbon at a new abortion clinic, apologizing for the Spanish Armada, and supervising a gay marriage. There was more — some of it actually pretty funny if you don’t take things like this too seriously.  The Vatican didn’t think it was funny.

The problem is people do take jokes — and bad ideas — seriously.  This internal data should never have seen the light of day.

One of the downsides of brainstorming is that crap ideas sometimes surface.  This is the direct result of classic brainstorming guidelines — “no ideas barred”, and “deferred judgement.” You are also encouraged to “free wheel” in brainstorming and say anything that comes to mind. Good facilitators are taught to write everything down, so, a lot of junk data, truly bad ideas, gets recorded.  Now, this junk can be turned into gold using thinking tools like reversal, or by simply pulling a wacky idea back into the realm of reality with refinement.  In other words, even stupid, goofy, hateful ideas can be turned around.  They might in fact be the seeds for a truly innovative idea.  Management, or the public in this case, are not meant to see the making of the sausages.  We are only meant to get the lovely beef stick on a bun covered with mustard and pickle relish.

The session might not have gone so far off the rails if the question at hand was a bit more specific. I’m just guessing, I wasn’t there, but one of the things that goes wrong with some brainstorm sessions is the question to answer is so broad it doesn’t focus thinking. Interestingly, the session was done without the aid of external consultants, who might have been more careful with the report. The UK government has been trying to get more “out of the box thinking” going — clearly, whatever they are doing it’s working. The bad news has to do with data management.

Those that understand the inner workings of creative process know that there is a lot of chafe when shucking the brainstorming wheat. The thing to learn about this event in the UK is that you should be very careful with brainstorming data. Keep those flip charts under wraps, keep those Post-its in a locked cabinet, and don’t give out the admin password on the Idea Management System.  Reports of brainstorming sessions should be about the positive results, the ideas that work. Participants in brainstorming sessions should also be vetted for their ability to be discreet. People can think up some wild stuff, and that’s okay, but make sure you have people you can trust involved — wacky ideas can be used against you.

Now about that Pope Benedict condom brand…I’m thinking a white conical packaging, that might double as a fun role play hat…maybe a little stick of incense and a romantic candle?  And given the Pope’s German roots, might we consider replacing communion wafers with small pretzels?  Wine with a good lager beer?

Sorry, I couldn’t resist.