Act on your ideas!
There's the idea...and then there's making it happen.
I think we should be focusing on the "ideas versus execution" challenge. As venture capitalist Brad Feld posted on Reuters' Entrepreneurial blog:
"Google? Not the first search engine. Facebook? Not the first social network. Groupon? Not the first deal site. Pandora? Not the first music site. The list goes on. Even when you go back in time to the origins of the software industry: MS-DOS – not the first operating system. Lotus 1-2-3 – not the first spreadsheet. The products and their subsequent companies became great because of execution."
The idea is important, but the execution is more important. Seeing the mountain and saying, "hey, let's climb it" is far different than actually climbing it.
I am reading a good book for people and organizations wanting to be more effective: Making Ideas Happen by Scott Belsky. He's a former Goldman Sachs leadership development executive who subsequently founded the Behance Network to help creative professionals make their ideas happen. That's his major point, that creative people are filled with ideas, but lack of or bad execution is the difference maker:
"It's a shame that countless ideas with the potential to transform our lives...are conceived and squandered in the hands of creative geniuses every day. The ideas that move industries forward are not the result of tremendous creative insight but rather of masterful stewardship."
How many ideas have you had that you have done nothing with? How many of them really could have had a big impact had you been able to follow through on them? Don't be modest, we all get brainstorms that could result in something potentially great for us and others if we were to pursue them to fruition.
As a strategic planner, an upfront part of my job is to get the group I am facilitating to generate their vision of the best, most wonderful future for their organization. This brainstorming and consensus-building exercise, while fact and reality based, is a highly creative process that participants find heartening, exciting and fun. Creating a compelling future vision is the part of strategic planning that almost everyone likes.
The harder, less attractive and less exciting part of strategic planning is getting down the road to that compelling vision. Just as individuals with a lot of ideas typically don't follow through on making them a reality, organizations very often have great ideas for a better future that never leave the starting gate.
That's why organizations need a disciplined planning and implementation process and a skilled facilitator to help get them through the process. A planner with a proven process, strong facilitation skills and an outside, educated perspective can work with the planning group and senior leaders to find and execute key strategies and powerful action steps to move the organization toward that much better envisioned future.
