This is Hidden Brain, I'm Shankar Vedanta.

Think about the last time you were part of a brainstorming session.

We just need to brainstorm. Five ideas.

But to be safe, let's come up with 50.

Let's make it 100.

Maybe this was at work, or at a planning meeting for a community organization.

Just when I emphasized there's no bad ideas here, we're just brainstorming.

Many people probably suggested ideas.

Perhaps there was some discussion about which proposal was best.

At the end, maybe everyone voted on the best idea.

If your meeting was like most meetings, there was probably one kind of idea that was in short supply.

How to do less.

I remember a brainstorming session some years ago, where colleagues filled an entire wall with

Post-it notes. What I looked at the Post-it wall later on, I was struck that almost none of the

notes suggested that the organization could streamline projects or stop doing things that weren't working.

All the ideas were about expansion, new projects.

Today we ask why we often ignore one of the most powerful paths to innovation.

When less is more this week on Hidden Brain.

Humans are curious and inventive creatures.

Give us a problem and we will come up with solutions.

Usually this is a marvelous skill.

Our drive to invent new things, generate new ideas, is responsible for great breakthroughs

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