I use a trick with co-workers when we’re trying to decide where to eat for lunch and no one has any ideas. I recommend McDonald’s.
An interesting thing happens. Everyone unanimously agrees that we can’t possibly go to McDonald’s, and better lunch suggestions emerge. Magic!
It’s as if we’ve broken the ice with the worst possible idea, and now that the discussion has started, people suddenly get very creative. I call it the McDonald’s Theory: people are inspired to come up with good ideas to ward off bad ones.
From Jon Bell’s medium.
So: if there is a task at hand, put an idea on the table as a start. It might be a good one, more likely it will be a mediocre one. The point is, as soon as something is on the table, the team starts to iterate and/or come up with better ones. Discussion happens.
I use this technique so many times I had to document it in this here blog.