Lore

Deliberately Bad Idea Opener

A facilitation technique for opening a discussion with an idea deliberately chosen to be a poor fit for the stated goals, then inviting the group to critique it.

Because the idea is intentionally flawed and low-stakes to attack, participants get low-risk practice at voicing critique. That practice makes it easier for them to later challenge ideas — including a powerful stakeholder's idea — that they would otherwise feel unsafe criticizing directly.

From Bruce McCarthy & Melissa Appel's Align (see Stakeholder Management as the "Secret Lubricant" of Product Success). Complements Mining for Conflict (Testing Apparent Consensus): both are designed to get real disagreement into the open rather than let a group default to silent, false consensus.