I stumbled across this post on Behance recently which rather unfairly characterized idea generation in the following quote which first appears on the page:

"Idea generation is an addiction... an engaging, brain-spinning indulgence that must be practiced in moderation."

That sounds downright fascist to me.

After reading the post a few times I think the intent was not so much to suggest we should restrict idea generation, though it certainly implied that, but rather was to remind us that we can get stuck in a vortex of only generating ideas and never executing them.

It is fair to say that idea generation is addictive and can be distracting, but to suggest that it is a "brain-spinning indulgence" is dead wrong. Perhaps my reaction to this article is more a matter of disagreeing with the writing style and word choice than the actual intent, which is clearly subject to interpretation. (Besides, you know what they say about good intentions).

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Here's an Idea: Think about how you say things, especially when you publish them for the world to read. It is an exercise in learning to communicate clearly. Don't expect people to correctly interpret things that aren't clear.
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Ideas flow freely and sometimes uncontrollably. What we need to do is learn to focus that power, not suppress it. Further, we must execute, which means working the idea, but in doing so we will inevitably generate more ideas and again, suppressing that is a bad idea, not to mention an exercise in futility. Try to "stop" ideas from popping into your head, by the time you realize you have an idea to suppress it's too late!

If so many entrepreneurs have experienced setbacks and utter failures because they lacked focus, tried to do too many things at once and executed poorly, how do we avoid that common pitfall and the idea "distraction-tornado" without abandoning good ideas?

By learning to focus our creativity and having an outlet for our ideas so that when they pop up in the middle of execution, we can capture them and then go back to what we were doing. Use a MindMap, a spreadsheet, or as one commenter posted a wiki, where collaborative ideas can be captured. Then get back to work. Whatever you do, when you have a good idea, EXECUTE on it (failure to do so is typically just laziness), but no matter what, don't suppress your ideas or those of the people that work for you.

If you are a CEO or Manager don't just be a "boss," be a leader by giving people a constructive way to generate, share and develop ideas while you keep them on track with whatever they are executing on. (Google is notoriously good at this by allowing employees 20% of their time to work on their ideas and look where they are).

Find balance and you can have great new ideas and solid execution.

Labels: ideas