Simple Question

Over at Creative Generalist, Steve Hardy is blogging about things he has learned at a conference in Toronto called IdeaCity. He writes:

Steven Rechtschaffner, former CCO of Electronic Arts, touched on several creative points. When presented with an idea, he says that the best response is the simple question, "What inspired it?" Learning of the inspirational root helps ground the idea, attaches a story to it, and fleshes it out a bit more. He praised the power of naivete, remarked on how art imitates life imitates art, and advised that if you're an idea person you must seek out cultures of "yes" and leave cultures of "no".

What a terrific question to ask first, rather than "what's wrong with this idea?"