Commit your next epiphany to paper!

Think about a recent time you had a fantastic idea. Perhaps you were walking the beach, riding the train or zoned out in a meeting or teleseminar when suddenly Boom from out of nowhere, two seemingly unrelated pieces of information connect in your mind and you realise that there is a new or different thing you could be doing, or way you could be doing it. Perhaps it is a blinding flash of the obvious that a task would be much more efficiently done by another person, or maybe at a different point in a process. That idea, you realise, could make an enormous value contribution to improving productivity or cutting cost/waste, and you feel that rush of energy that accompanies all such discoveries. The entrepreneur within you sparks in rebirth!

Every invention is a unique experience, yet equally everything that awaits discovery exists somewhere, in some form already. Not only that, but the business world around us already exists and functions the best way it knows how without your epiphany… So how do you go about building momentum to change the world? Using  the gift of your idea+energy to quickly map out the value you want to bring before the inertia of BAU condemns your idea to the nether-regions of unlit creativity! In this brief article let's explore together a simple way to map value and create an action plan for your idea, all the way through to sharing it with an accountability partner who can help you push through critical moments.

1. Get your idea on Paper

A bullet point, perhaps key words or a sentence or two which captures the idea to the point where you can work with it. What is that strange phenomena where ideas always seem to come at the times when it is trickiest to capture them? I know that you, like me, have experienced this.

In the modern world we all have tools to capture these things relatively easily and if you plan on being a person who shapes your world through the ideas you have it pays to plan in advance. In my case, I'm using Microsoft OneNote synced across all my devices and have a specific tab in my journal for ideas. That way, a few words I capture on my smartphone while walking the beach at dawn are waiting for me on my laptop when I sit down to work them an hour or two later.

2. Identify the community that you are serving. Ask Who? Ask who gets value from the idea, and in which ways do they realise that value. How does it improve their ability to contribute (a component value). This may be a relatively simple exercise making it ideal for this point in the process. A lot of current thinking advises that you pick a very specific person in your mind to the point where you can visualise them clearly. Thinking on paper, describe the beneficiary. What do they see when they look at the task to be completed? How do they feel about it right now? How do they talk themselves through the way they currently approach the task your idea will help them with?

For bonus clarity: Is there another person? Same role same idea but a different geographical location who doesn't even attempt that task today because they feel it they are too far from the action? Is there a potential beneficiary in a different role in the same location who,would like to be doing that task, but today cannot because the existing procedure prevents them?

Clearly defining the person who will value your idea is a critical step to fleshing out your idea into something which is going to make a difference.

3. How is the job currently being done? Thinking about the customer for your idea, describe in as much detail as you can how they achieve the task your idea can help them with today. They seem to be managing (or not)… What does that look like? Established patterns are the 'competition' to your idea and in many cases as I've seen first hand they are the toughest completion you can face, because disrupting established patterns can require some special sauce.

Once you have one way people are coping without your idea think of a second, a third. No matter how excited you are about the value you bring, resist the urge to paint these current strategies in a negative light. Remember that creative entrepreneurs who came before you thought of those ideas and they work so it can be hugely beneficial to you to figure out how and where you integrate with the existing routine, and where you make changes to enhance it!

4. Once you have a strong grasp on the procedure as it exists, and the outcomes
it achieves, it's time to insert your idea in the loop. Why will people flock to adopting your idea? How specifically does it change an existing value chain and what is the resulting delta in value to the outcome. What is the personal value that your customer is going to derive from adopting your idea? Elaborate on this and rework it a number of times over because this is the essence of your pitch for change/business. There are some great tools you can use to help tease this out if you are willing to do what it takes to have your idea see the light of day.

5. What are the implications of staying the same? Ideas for change meet with resistance. It's a law of nature. Imaging yourself as a specific person (step 2) in the community who can benefit from your idea for a moment, write out what might cause them to dismiss or reject your idea. My contacts know that I like to be a positive thinker… But just for a moment be a negative thinker and subject your idea to scrutiny. For sure others are going to.  Get an appreciation for the resistance to your idea and remember that we all live in a comfort-zone somewhere along the adoption curve. Putting effort in this step may be invaluable once you start to bounce your idea off others.

6. How does implementing your idea change the game for the person adopting it? This is a great opportunity to paint new opportunity that customers can latch on to. If you are cutting their costs, what are 3 areas they could invest that money into? Reducing time? How might they use that time to build more personal value through new contributions? Could they take on more contracts? Open new geographies? Improve their organisation's green image? Experienced hands in sales will share that it may not be enough to merely solve a perceived problem and overcome objections to change. Customers what to be able to own the growth that putting your idea into play can create.

Mapped onto paper the answers to these questions quickly form the core of a fledgling business plan and will give you enough to bounce your idea off stakeholders and fellow innovators in the community. Nobody creates value in a vacuum so your final step in exiting this incubation stage of your great idea is to book time with people who's opinion is valued and get them to try your idea on, networking you with others who can help it take flight. Repeating the steps above in your business mastermind group will also bring significant insight so make a note now to book time with them when that next great spark of innovation flashes by your stop!

Ideas for the article came from a number of books I've been reviewing and conversations I've had recently but gelled for me when I attended the recent Fast Growth Seminar held in Auckland by @KerwinRae who talked a lot about understanding your customer. If you are an entrepreneur looking to get started or an established business looking to grow I highly recommend checking out his upcoming training course Nail it and Scale It in Sydney in May and August, or if you have aerophobia, look me up for a cup of coffee;

About: Grant Finer