The Power of Harnessing an Idea

In her latest episode of the "How to Fail" Podcast, Elizabeth Day embarked on an enlightening conversation with Joan Bakewell, a legendary presenter and someone truly inspiring and approaching her 90th birthday! Amongst many things that I treasured from this conversation, I had to make a personal note of idea generation and its simplicity which she speaks that we so often overcomplicate.

I am way too often guilty of jumping to the final product and results without fully realising how significant the idea generation stage of the process is. With this realisation, I thought I'd share how I am going to approach my next embarkation of beginning a new project in the hope of:

1. Creating my own accountability
2. Hoping the process may help others too that face this dilemma

Ideas tend to fill our heads (while I know they do mine) momentarily throughout the days and weeks and so to start I'm going to follow these steps:

Write down the idea

Writing down an idea not only scribes it as a note but also saves it for future visits. Tools to use are the notes App on a phone or OneNote on a Laptop - two tools readily available and easy to use. This idea can be revisited later and with the attention to come back to it, I will set aside the time and the steps I will take during that time.

Explore the Idea in Depth

In determining whether the idea will work or not, to avoid solutioning from the outset it is important to explore if the idea exists and in what form/forms. The internet is a powerful source of this information and from that, I will save time in recreating the wheel. By doing this, you can also determine the time spend required for each idea.

Prototype

With yet to focus on the outcome, prototyping and exploring the idea in depth is the next phase of idea generation. Avoiding going straight to a solution avoids the unnecessary pressure of already having an idea formulated and the feeling of failure when it's not started (I know I get this).

Challenge the Idea

Challenging the ideas and asking important questions such as benefits (to you, to others), any predicted challenges to creating the product, and whether there is anyone in your network that you can collaborate on it with - valuing your own time.

Set Constraints

Setting constraints can help you focus on a specific area and generate more focused ideas. For example, you can set a time, budget, or resource limit.

Pick one or two and take the next steps

What the next steps will be will hopefully arise from idea generation stages. Therefore, what is involved (resources and time) will be clear and you can begin implementation.

Avoiding going straight to a solution avoids the unnecessary pressure of already having an idea formulated and the feeling of failure when it's not started

Remember that not every idea will be a good one, but the goal is to explore as many ideas as possible and then narrow down the list to the most promising ones. Hopefully, this helps at least one person (mainly myself) in taking the next steps when figuring out the tangle of ideas and possibilities to be able to harness them and take action.