How to leverage an idea

I saw a lovely interview with Jony Ive – the Apple design genius – where he was talking about the fragility of ideas.

His contention – echoing Ovid – is that ideas are fragile. Yes, even back when toga Tuesdays were just called Martis Dies, people recognised how hard it is the make a new idea work.

The full quote from Ovid, for those playing along at home, “A new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn; it can be stabbed to death by a quip and worried to death by a frown on the right man's brow.”

Or Napoleon, “There is nothing so fragile as a new born idea. It can be killed with a sigh.”

And, while it is true there is nothing so powerful as an idea whose time has come (thankyou Victor Hugo), getting it from cradle to kindergarten is the hard bit.

As Jony says, it’s easy to see the problem in any idea – they are known and understood. It’s harder to see the promise in an idea – these are partial and tentative and unproven.

Opinions, he says, are not ideas.

Opinions are simply perspectives. And often hierarchical.

It’s why any new idea needs two things if a business is to benefit from it. It needs someone to accept the idea has value (often hard to do in the logic-driven rush to meet deadlines). This can be as simple as accepting the idea exists. And acknowledging, openly, the potential in the idea. “Ooh, I like that.” “That sounds interesting.” “Ooh. Can you tell me that again when I’m not so rushed?”

Be open.

Be humble.

Be a teacher.

And it needs someone to defend the idea. From the yawns and sighs and sideways glances.

Ideas make business better.

In an increasingly competitive world, on a flatter and flatter playing field, ideas are the only legal competitive edge you have.

Or, as the great philosopher Lindsay Fox once said,

“If better is possible, good is not enough.”