Blue sky thinking meaning: ideas with no limits

Blue sky before the office

Blue-sky first meant a clear sky. Nobody has traced who first said “blue sky thinking”.

Blue-sky laws

In US finance, blue-sky stock means worthless stock, and that sense was in print by 1919. The laws that ban selling it are called blue-sky laws.

Blue sky thinking meaning in the UK

One British dictionary writes it with a hyphen, blue-sky thinking. UK workers call blue-sky thinking the most confusing phrase at work, ahead of low-hanging fruit and move the needle. Australian office workers aged 45 to 54 dislike it more than any other phrase.

Among Gen Z workers in the US, only 25% know exactly what it means.

The thought shower

Thought shower is the British stand-in for brainstorm.

What happens in a blue sky session

In a blue sky session, every idea goes on the list. Cost and deadlines wait for a later meeting, where the list gets cut. It’s like think outside the box, with a sky where the box used to be.

Our jargon dictionary also explains “let’s not boil the ocean”, which cuts ideas where blue sky thinking adds them. Use both in one afternoon and the whiteboard ends the day empty.

The corporate bullshit generator can work blue sky thinking into the sentences it writes. It’s too rare a phrase for the buzzword bingo card, so nobody at the table is listening for it.

Blue sky with a fixed budget

When the budget and the deadline are already set, “let’s do some blue sky thinking” can mean “don’t bring up cost yet”. Ask what the budget is before you start.

When the blue sky session becomes monthly

Praise one blue sky session and it can turn into a monthly fixture. It stays on the calendar until 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.