“No. Yes and…” Your Way to Become a Top Performing Team
The Plus Principle, or plussing, is a style of giving feedback that is an essential practice of high performing teams. It operates in two parts. First the critique and second the suggestion of how to improve. The second part is akin to what improv comedians refer to as “Yes, and…” thinking. One comedian responds to whatever the other comedian says with an idea that builds on the original premise. Instead of saying “No,” which would stop the scene, the comedian says “Yes, and xyz.”
Legendary duo Abbott and Costello applied this method when performing their famous sketch called “Who’s On First?” The sketch is a conversation between the manager of a baseball team, Abbott, and a fan or rookie player, Costello. Abbott informs Costello of the players’ names: “Who’s on first, What’s on second, and I Don’t Know is on third.” Costello’s confusion ensues and hilarity results.
They performed this sketch thousands of times throughout their career and each version was slightly different. Author Ron Palumbo explains that “[t]he boys had to pay close attention to each other, and that kept it fresh, even after a thousand renditions.” They didn’t get bored because they always had to “Yes, and…” eachother. They were always plussing which helped them innovate on the same theme. Palumbo writes that their biggest variation from the standard structure happened “when they switched the players’ names to members of an orchestra for audiences in England and Australia who were unfamiliar with baseball.” Even after 20 years of performing the sketch, during their final televised performance of the routine, they continued to employ the Plus Principle. Palumbo writes:
“…Costello voiced his usual exasperation about the pitcher, Today, and the catcher, Tomorrow, complaining, “That’s all, you got a couple of days on the team.” Abbott replied, “Well, I can’t help that,” then added, apparently for the first time, “They’re brothers.” Lou responded, “Who’s brothers?” Bud countered, “No, they’re no relation to Who.”
Instead of brainstorming together to alter the sketch beforehand, each person was attuned to the creativity of the other. They built their ideas onto the other person’s ideas in real time. The comedians had to show up with their full individual talents to contribute to the team outcome.
The Plus Principle sounds like a “No. Yes, and…” There is critique in addition to a helpful suggestion. This flips traditional thinking about idea generation on its head. The original rules of brainstorming developed by Osborn in 1957 included both “Do not criticize one another’s ideas,” and “Expand and elaborate on existing ideas.” The Plus Principle asks us to ditch that first rule and continue following the second rule. Including critique as part of the creative process helps combat social loafing.
Social loafing is the concept that people will exert less effort when they are part of a team compared to doing a task solo. The results of their actions and inactions are hidden amongst a group outcome. That is part of the reason why individuals create more ideas when following traditional brainstorming rules alone instead of in a group. There are direct consequences, both good and bad, that will result from their individual actions.
Companies like Pixar use the Plus Principle to great success and research also supports the element of critique for creative idea generation. Researchers Nemeth, Personnaz, Personnaz and Goncalo studied the difference in idea generation amongst three groups that followed different brainstorming rules. One group followed the traditional brainstorming rule to not criticize any ideas. While the debate group was told to criticize ideas. Then the control group was given minimal guidance. They all needed to figure out how to reduce traffic congestion in the San Francisco Bay Area. Researchers repeated the study with both US and French participants.
They found that the debate group generated more ideas than the traditional brainstorming group and the control group. Contrary to traditional thinking that critique limits creativity, they found the opposite to be true. Nemeth et al suggest that because debate is required, it is seen as helpful to the group. Therefore, group members feel more comfortable critiquing ideas because they know they will not be ostracized. Everyone expects critique to occur — it is normalized. Researchers also offer the possibility that encouraging participants to do the forbidden “may be very liberating and even stimulating.” With their creativity unlocked, team members feel free to let their ideas flow.
While the Plus Principle focuses on giving feedback about team tasks, it also cultivates productive conflict skills within teams. Productive conflict expands the sphere of internal debate to include conversations about team structure, roles and responsibilities. If a team avoids these conversations, they accrue conflict debt which is “the sum of all undiscussed and unresolved issues that stand in the way of progress,” writes psychologist Liane Davey for the Harvard Business Review.
Conflict debt limits creativity and innovation. Davey explains that humans avoid conflict because we are biologically predisposed to want to be part of a group, we are socialized to be polite and we are rewarded in the workforce for getting along with colleagues.
To counteract both our biological and socialized conflict-avoidant tendencies, Davey suggests that teams detail which tensions should exist. In addition to setting expectations that there will be debate, Davey also recommends that leadership makes healthy tensions known to everyone. For example, Davey argues there should be productive conflict between Sales and Operations:
“If Sales and Operations aren’t frustrating one another, someone isn’t pushing hard enough. Sales should be looking for shiny, new, differentiated solutions for customers while Operations should be trying to create consistency that supports efficiency.”
To create safety, everyone needs to discuss together what each person’s roles and responsibilities are and where those spheres overlap — a potential source of tension. This helps set expectations about where conflicts are likely to arise. Navigating conflict and learning how to leverage it for the team’s progress is key to team performance. The Plus Principle is an effective entry point to build your team’s skills to a level where you can begin to discuss inter-team tensions. Increase your team’s creativity and start to pay off that conflict debt, try the Plus Principle and let us know how it goes.
