I was sitting at a bar enjoying a cocktail with my good friend Ray, with an opening day baseball game on the TV behind the bar. Other than being at opening day, it was a perfect location to catch up. As often happens when the two of us get together, we begin telling stories from earlier in our career. We both were blessed with lengthy careers and with it comes plenty of stories, which of course get better each time we tell one. At some point in our conversation, the topic turned to something in front of us on the bar, a cocktail napkin. Ray’s career was in advertising, and he told me several stories of successful ideas which began on a cocktail napkin. I shared my own stories of cocktail napkins I had used in my career. We both wondered if people truly understood their value.

You might be wondering what you can learn from a cocktail napkin. I think you can learn a lot.

Writing things on a cocktail napkin is an informal form of something most people hate to do, brainstorming. We’ve all experienced when a leader says, “today we’re going to spend some time brainstorming new ideas.” At least one half of those present in the room groan to themselves and say, “please no, not that!” Then it begins with ideas being written on a whiteboard or flip charts, and with every idea somebody critiques why it won’t work. After an hour or two, the meeting ends with very little being accomplished and certainly nothing creative. I’ll bet you can count on both hands those experiences in your career.

Ray experienced what I would call informal brainstorming with co-workers, and it worked for a couple of reasons. First, the group trusted each other, because most of us don’t go out for drinks with people we don’t trust. Because of this, new ideas or a different twist on an idea weren’t taken as criticism. The second is the environment made it conducive to dialog and sharing of ideas. The conference room in your building or the conference room you rented for a day aren’t the best environments for creativity. They are too confined and restrained. The other reason it worked well was it was natural, not forced, it happened organically because people were together.

Think about it, when people get together for drinks or lunch, the normal barriers that impact relationships melt away. It’s why if you ever need to have a hard conversation with someone, you should do it over a meal, because people are more receptive.  Co-workers in a social naturally gravitate to talking about work, what they enjoy, some venting about frustrations, and sharing ideas. I can picture Ray with a group of co-workers and imagine someone sharing a thought about a client project, then someone says, “have you thought about this?”, then another co-worker picks up that thought and says, “or what about …”. Ray might have been the one who says, “hey, that’s not a bad idea”. When those words were spoken, he grabbed a nearby napkin, wrote thoughts down and stuffed it in his pocket. I’m confident when the napkin was unfolded the next day, it wasn’t always gold. I imagine some were confusing and yet that’s the beauty of brainstorming, sometimes there’s an idea that percolates up from a napkin is gold.

I wonder today how many co-workers spend time socializing over lunch or getting together after work. My guess is that it’s very infrequent because everyone is so busy. Couple that with a remote or hybrid workforce and there are fewer natural opportunities. Social opportunities are important for teams.

My use of a cocktail napkin was not about generating ideas, but instead it was creating a visual image for someone. Throughout my career, I had the opportunity to listen to others who had an idea to make something better. If the idea seemed too complicated to me, I would ask if they could explain it on a cocktail napkin. They immediately understood what I was saying. They could picture only a small amount of room on a cocktail napkin, even if it was unfolded. They knew they needed to simplify it so people would understand.

The cocktail napkin is a versatile and valuable tool for your career. Try it sometime.

Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? Isaiah 43:19