How Well Do You Act On Your Ideas?
/When do you decide to shift focus and take a chance?
Last up, we looked at Sharing Ideas as the first stage in taking action. There are lots of ways to do this, from 2-minute hallway conversations to elaborate prototyping of ideas. You could even build a Minimum Valuable Product to share with prospects (I wouldn’t start there but it’s an option you may consider).
Acting on your ideas is tough for a simple reason—many (actually, most) organizations staff to operate their daily business and bring in the bacon. Upgrading the business—acting on ideas for new ways—may be lauded, but it’s too often un-resourced, extra-curricular, dropped on an already full plate.
Having ideas is fun. But the act of maturing those ideas and testing them in the real world is hard work. Validating ideas feels like victory, but invalidating them can be crushing (one reason why some ideas survive for years past their sell-by date).
Innovation is about the effective transfer of ideas to the field. Organizations that excel at this resource a great process to quickly gather, filter, validate, and deliver (or cull) ideas.
Hope is not their strategy.
We’ll look at Follow Through in the next episode, after you’ve answered this question…
How seriously do you take innovation?
Blunt question—find your answer by casting your mind back a year or three and asking:
What ideas did you act on? Which of these have profoundly benefited your business?
Which ideas did you park ‘until you had time’? Did you ever get back to them?
Which ideas do you regret missing out on? Is there still time?
Does this exercise prompt ideas for change? Write them out.
Trusting Technology is a book about forming ideas, exploring opportunities with customers and colleagues, and building your future together. Order your copy here.