Implementing Ideas

Seth Godin in a recent post says "The quality of ideas is not a factor in whether or not you will be in a position to have a chance to sell those ideas."

Godin is talking about selling ideas to companies. But the same is true within companies. Having ideas is wonderful, but if you can't fit them into the context of the company you can't sell them to others in the office.

Within a company there are probably two stages of an idea.

Stage one: Conception. Every idea starts in someone's head, it appears in a quiet moment, or in the middle of a discussion about something quite different. Or it might appears from sheer will power as you search for a solution to a problem. It's very basic but quickly grows as you think about it and shape it, in your head, on paper or in discussions with friends and colleagues.

But at this stage it's not ready for the world. It's just an idea. People might find it interesting, but it's just an idea.

Stage two: Development. To move a new idea in any organization you have to be able to explain practically how it fits into whatever is happening today, and, critically, outline the steps that will move it from being an idea to being real. What needs to be done, who will do it, how it will pay for itself, and how it will sustain itself. Unless you can convert an idea into a practical list of things to do, it will always be an idea. That list has to go to anyone who might ever care about your project. If you can't do that no one else will do it for you.

This might sound amazingly obvious. But I can't count the number of times I've heard great ideas that have no list; no practical way to integrate them with what the company is doing today. Months later people ask - didn't we talk about this a few months ago?