The long journey of a good idea
First, an idea needs to be born.
The idea arises to solve a problem or to take advantage of an opportunity, Ideas serve to generate some type of value.
Value is an advantage, an efficiency, a well-being. Value can be profit, revenue, cash flow....it can be a high level of satisfaction, engagement, motivation....it can be the preservation of a biome, the correct recycling of waste, and the reduction of inefficiency... it can be self-esteem, self-realization.
Where Good Ideas Come From is a book worth reading, by Steven Johnson, and there are others that deal with the subject. The question of the idea is the result of the creative attitude.
Second, there is the challenge of modeling and implementing the idea.
To transform the intangible into concreteness, theories and techniques, studies and schools, methodologies abound to achieve success.
The HOW to do it is available knowledge if the owner of the idea has the knowledge to adopt appropriate technologies, the culture to know how to engage people with good management of excellence.
It is a fact that the excellence of an organization is usually the result of a culture of leadership excellence.
If you know how to model, you will know how many resources (human, economic, etc.) you will need to realize the idea, and how long it will take. You will know how to project the return on investment over time, and you will assess whether you have the willpower to pursue such ideas.
Taleb's book Antifragil is a good book to read, just as knowing Tushman's studies on Ambidexterity can be useful in resource management. Knowing the cutting-edge technologies available is essential to optimize the resources needed to bring an idea to fruition. Knowing how to hire the right T-Shaped people to interpret and implement the idea is necessary. We don't need tourists.
Third, you need to actually generate value for yourself and all stakeholders involved.
Value that needs to have been correctly dimensioned and sustainable. Between saying and doing there is an ocean in the middle.
Edgar Morin wrote that things do not always flow as expected. He reminds us to think about the distance between theory and practice because at [...] “the moment an individual undertakes an action, whatever it may be, it begins to escape their intentions. This enters a universe of interactions and finally the environment takes over it in a direction that can become contrary to the initial intention. In other words, it is necessary to take into account the final effects of an entire process".
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Generating value is a transdisciplinary science, and requires a complex understanding of the actions we launch into the world.
For this reason, we need creative people capable of understanding phenomena and knowing how to act accordingly in the “job to be done”, as studied by Clayton Christensen. Clay Christensen: The Jobs to be Done Theory
Design thinking to generate value
One working methodology is design thinking, which brings together several useful tools to undertake a new idea, considering its application in a BANI era. The difficulty is that a new idea always promotes change. Change of habit, for example.
For the creator of "field theory" Kurt Lewin, change is acted upon by two forces that are opposite to each other: positive or driving forces that act towards change, supporting it; and negative or restrictive forces that work against change.
Lewin tells us that for a change in behavior to occur among people in the organization, the details of both the individual and the context must be taken into consideration. As the desired change occurs, the reality and core values of that system begin to reveal themselves more effectively.
So it is the process of change itself that reveals the system as it is. Such information, once discovered in the navigation arc, allows us to effectively understand the system where we interact and which we seek to transform.
This means that no matter how brilliant an idea may initially appear, and no matter how competent we are in modeling and implementing it, there is no certainty about its success. Because sometimes the "market" writes correctly through crooked lines. Between an "adjacent possible" and a "serendipity", everything can change in the ecosystem, Steven Johnson would say.
And as in the BANI era things change continually, we must have the ability to learn to learn always, as paths change, and maps quickly become obsolete.
Creating a map is fundamental, and knowing where you are on it is basic. Getting lost is easy.
The journey from the idea to the return on investment, that is, the path to generating value is long, requires
Seneca would say that there is no good wind for the sailor who does not know which port to go to.