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The Devil’s Advocate
Innovation is often lauded as the key to success in business. After all, staying ahead of the competition is hard if you’re not constantly coming up with new ideas and ways to improve your products or services. But is every idea you come up with a good thing? Is there such a thing as being too innovative?
To keep yourself honest, you may consider appointing a devil’s advocate.
The Devil’s Advocate is a popular movie from the 1990s that tells the story of a lawyer hired to argue against a candidate for a high-ranking position in the Vatican. The lawyer’s job is to poke holes in the candidate’s qualifications and to find any dirt that might disqualify him.
While the movie is fictional, the idea of a Devil’s Advocate is accurate, and it’s something that companies sometimes use when considering new ideas. The aim is to have someone whose job is to argue against the proposed idea and improve it by ensuring all potential problems are discussed and addressed.
