How do you share new ideas with your team?

In my experience, having a plan and a rough sketch of what you wish to express is important. Secondly, making sure that you take feedback and inputs from your team members is a great way to highlight their additions to the idea as well as making your idea more inclusive.

In my experience it’s all about phrasing, the best way to communicate an Idea is to present the summary first and then elaborate based on the amount of impact the ideas has on their work

In my experience, people listen better when you engage them. Make your audience participate in your presentation. Try not to speak or talk at them.

I've found it effective to leverage what I call "Power Players". These are key stakeholders with significant influence within an organization. Sometimes this is due to a position they have, others times it is due to their reputation, experience, expertise, or just their personal magnetism. Talk to these stakeholders individually before you "go public". Float your ideas past them, get their input, tweak your approach, and then work with them to champion the idea.

I have found it useful to share an idea by presenting - What the idea is - Why would it be beneficial - How it would benefit the customers and business - Including data or illustrations if possible to support the idea - Being open to audience feedback - Last but not the least, many a times, great ideas are discussed but never taken all the way to the finish line. So don't just leave it at ideation, take it all the way to completion.

As we learn to be curious, our ability to share ideas and collaborate over the next steps grows in impact. Great communicators do not merely share information--a quick Google search can provide more than enough meaning--but ideas come to life when information is given contextual meaning. Our curiosity to ask before we tell or listen before we speak provides us the valuable resources of contextual understanding. As we frame an idea, we are looking to meet the pain, joy, concern, fear, or other emotions of our audience, co-workers, or partner with the satisfaction of being known and understood. Thus, understanding how to frame an idea becomes a source of compassion and empathy.

Presenting ideas is like selling a toaster; if someone has come to you saying they want a new one because their old one is burning their bagels, you won't sell one by telling them they're burning the bagels because they're dumb with toasters. Show how your toaster (idea) can not only solve their issue, but that there are many options available to them to solve it.

There are many online collaboration platforms available nowadays that organisations can use as tools to visually communicate with team mates and even stakeholders. These platforms offer boards where you can draw using tools and use colourful sticky notes and pads to write down your ideas. You can use arrows to connect each idea to create a workflow. Share your ideas with your team mates and ask them to add their feedback.

Absolutely (be flexible)! If you surround yourself with smart people (which every good leader should), your idea may spark the creativity of the team. Get them engaged in an outcome, they will help to formulate the most effective solution. Yours might be good, but cumulatively the teams may be better.

Personally, the follow-up and follow through is one of the most important steps. You can present your ideas in whatever format and forum works best but if you don’t follow up on identified action items or circle-back to revisit the topic, then the idea is going to die with your presentation. When following up, be open to feedback regarding your idea and willingness to tweak to meet the needs of the business.

All of the above are essential to getting a new idea across the line. By all means think laterally and be creative but apply your ideas logically so that everyone understands and will move forward with you.

As a person who may get ideas in the most random times, I have started to write down my ideas or examples that I take note of during meetings and webinars. Even if it may not serve a purpose at the moment, those ideas serve as innovation had given me a new vantage point when it comes to collaboration. This a great tool if you are not one to come up with ideas at the spur of the moment.