Blue sky thinking meaning: ideas with no limits

Blue sky before the office

As a word, blue-sky dates to 1852, or to 1890 to 1895, depending on the dictionary. In 1852 it meant a clear sky. The visionary sense comes with no date at all, which suits it. Who first said “blue sky thinking” is unknown, and the dictionary example of the full phrase is from 2010.

Blue-sky laws

In US finance, blue-sky stock is worthless stock, and the rules against selling it are called blue-sky laws. The fake-stock sense turns up by 1919. Pitch a blue-sky idea to a finance team and they’ll hear both senses, the 1919 one first.

Blue sky thinking meaning in the UK

UK workers call blue-sky thinking the most confusing phrase at work, ahead of low-hanging fruit and move the needle. In Australia, office workers aged 45 to 54 dislike it more than any other phrase. In the US, only 25% of Gen Z workers know exactly what it means. The other 75% are in the workshop anyway, adding sticky notes.

The thought shower

In April 2003, trainee teachers were told to avoid “brainstorming” for fear of offending pupils with epilepsy. They were to say “word storm” or “thought shower” instead. The dictionary puts a “supposedly” on that reason. The worry had some history behind it, though. “Brainstorm” meant a fit of acute mania by 1861, and took its ideas sense only in 1934.

What happens in a blue sky session

In the session nobody says no, and every sticky note stays on the wall until the vote. The group chat running under the table keeps a shorter list.

People who complain about corporate jargon file blue-sky thinking among the oddest, next to boil the ocean. The two pull in opposite directions. One invites every idea, and “let’s not boil the ocean” cuts them back. Book both for the same afternoon and the whiteboard ends the day empty.

Both are squares on the buzzword bingo card. The corporate bullshit generator keeps blue-sky thinking in stock, for sessions that run short of ideas.

Blue sky with a fixed budget

“Let’s do some blue sky thinking” on a project with a fixed budget and a fixed date can mean “don’t bring up cost yet”. Ask for the budget before the session starts, so the ideas land somewhere real. A session with nobody named to act on the results is a meeting that ends with a photo of a whiteboard.

When the blue sky session becomes monthly

The risk comes afterwards. Tell the organiser the session was eye-opening and it turns into a monthly fixture, same room, same afternoon. Saying in the room that it didn’t work is its own kind of career move, so nobody does. It ends the week somebody runs an anonymous poll.

A calendar invite for a blue sky session

Blue sky Wish list: 2027 product ideas, 90 min, Room 4

No budgets, no roadmaps, no “we tried that in 2019”. Bring three ideas each. On Friday we cut the list to five and put a name next to each one.