Aye, it’s St. Patrick’s Day, and on this day of saints, I cannot tell a lie. There is a pervasive and growing cliché in the innovation business, and it’s starting to drive me a bit nuts, ready?
“Ideas are a dime a dozen” and it’s usually coupled with the thought “it’s not about ideas, it’s about execution.”
If you do a Google search on those phrases you’ll find many current links to blogs, business articles, and famous quotes pages. At a recent innovation conference in Berlin (FEI 2011) I heard this thinking echoed in several speakers presentations. Patrick Lefler, clearly a bottom line guy, wrote this recent piece, which was posted on the Blogging Innovation site, but there are many others who’ve advocated this concept. I found posts going back to 2006 on this theme.
On one level, this is indisputable. There are indeed a lot of ideas out there swimming around looking for a home. We all have lots of ideas, well, many of us have lots of ideas. Execution is — absolutely — a big missing in many organizations, and, for many individuals (he who has 3 book projects on the five yard line nodding yes here). So, it’s quite true that some people, and some organizations, would be very well served to focus, big time, on execution. Fair enough.
However…
It’s my belief that truly great ideas, those that have big impact, or are breakthrough concepts, are Not a dime a dozen. A truly great idea might be as rare as a four-leafed clover. There are many out there, but finding them? That’s the trick isn’t it. I’m writing a post about this because there is a real danger in accepting the notion that it’s all about execution. The danger is you’ll not do as good a job of idea generation as you should. People are fairly unskilled idea generators as it is, they don’t do it enough to become truly fluid. Organizations reflect this, and often execute ideas that are truly mediocre — because they have nothing else!
As someone who has facilitated quite a few brainstorming (aka ideation, aka idea generation) sessions, I find that it’s relatively easy to come up with incremental improvement ideas, and far more difficult to come up with breakthrough ideas. The new miniature version of a candy bar, easy. Cool new packaging, easy. New market leader, or new industry — Not So Easy. Breakthrough or disruptive ideas are simply not a dime a dozen.
For example, I have had dozens of ideas on how to promote my book (Jack’s Notebook — now available on Kindle!) and I’ve executed a few of them as well, and do I have a best seller? No. I can blame it on quality — but I have dozens of great reviews. I can blame it on budget — but I’ve seen those with smaller budgets do better. And, I can blame it on a lack of truly creative marketing, or stated another way, lack of a breakthrough marketing idea. So, for this challenge, for me, it’s not about execution, it’s about the idea.
Drug companies work for years to find a new compound that will cure some ill and then put it through years of expensive clinical trials, and still, often fail. Where were all those ideas that simply needed executed? They wish ideas were a dime a dozen! A truly good product idea would have succeeded. They didn’t fail on execution, they failed by not having a better concept for a drug — they needed a better idea to start with. Drug companies are now looking for whole new approaches to development — and the company that finds a better approach (and that’s a Big Idea) will be a huge winner in the marketplace. They already know how to execute.
Another example, A Nashville songwriter I know, let’s call him Jake, has written and pitched songs for 20 years. A few have been recorded, but none were hits. Was the problem execution? Probably not. He wrote lots of songs, he pitched lots of songs, a decent number were recorded by known artists, but with poor results. On the other hand, English country boy Bernie Taupin wrote the lyrics to dozens of hit songs for Elton John, and those poetic lyrics would probably have been hits for any top recording artist. What’s the difference between Bernie Taupin and my friend Jake? Better quality songs. Better ideas for quality songs. Elton’s execution was the fourth leaf that completed the clover.
So, in my view it’s not about ideas or execution. It’s about ideas AND execution. It may be an obvious thing to say, but innovator’s can go wrong on both ends of the equation. As I’ve said before, Innovation is a Holistic Process. It’s not about one thing, it’s about many.
8 responses to “Ideas AND Execution (Great Ideas are Four-Leafed Clovers)”
Gregg: I have lots of ideas to share with you on this topic, and some of them are good.
I’d execute the good ones. Line them up next to a brick wall, give them a last cigarette, take their letter to mother, put on a blindfold, and have them shot by a firing squad for their audacity.
this is a great post but not all ideas even great ones can wildly succeed. We need all levels of success. I gave Jack’s Notebook one of your great reviews. But it might be that it is better off making an impact with the right people than just empirically more people.
That may just sound like rationalizing but I am not sure it is. There are so many intangibles that go into “success” that we can’t account for them all no matter how amazing and well thought out our endeavors are.
Work to make them more successful? Absolutely. But having attachment to the outcome can blind us to the sincere efforts we have made and obscure the success and impact we have had and made.
Good point Matthew. Ideas happen in a context and the yardstick of what makes one “great” and another not so great is highly variable. Jack’s Notebook is a big success for me personally for all sorts of reasons, for example. And, it’s reached an interesting audience who’ve seen some value in it. I also like your point about attachment to outcome, it not only blinds us to impact, it tends to be dis-empowering as well. As in “well, if I can’t get a million seller, why bother?”
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Actually, in our experience, ideas cost from about $12.5 each. So, if they are only worth a dime a dozen, they are a horrendous waste of money!
The logic behind that number? Suggesting an idea in a corporate suggestion scheme or idea management software takes about 10-15 minutes. Further, it takes a subject expert some 5-10 minutes to perform an initial review of an idea in order to determine whether or not to take it further. That’s a minimum of 15 minutes per idea.
If an employee’s time is worth about $50 an hour, that comes to $12.50 per idea. Higher salaries, more time to submit the idea and more time to review it all increase the cost of the idea.
I’ve never analysed the cost of a brainstorm session, but would assume that although it takes less time to suggest an idea vocally, time out for the session (for all participants), travel to the brainstorming site, cost of facilitator, etc would actually result in even more expensive ideas.
Clearly it is in businesses’ interest to generate ideas that are worth considerably more than a dime a dozen!
Gregg- Great follow up on the storm of posts regarding idea abundance versus the importance of execution. I agree with a lot of your points and disagree with just as many.
First of all, I’m glad you’re writing because you feel a danger in the notion that it is all about execution. Not sure if anyone would agree that it is “all” about execution, however I’d agree with you that it is about balance. Your quote: “People are fairly unskilled idea generators as it is” (wondering if you gain this perspective from your brainstorm facilitation?) is a notion that is hard to swallow wholesale. In our work at the Center for Innovation Management Studies (CIMS) we find that people are far more skilled idea generators than we give credit to. It’s a matter of liberation, and by that I mean when you take an individual out of their daily “grind,” they can be remarkably fruitful idea generators. I’d argue that it is less about the person as an idea generator and more about the process of skilled extraction of those ideas, and more importantly how those ideas are then nurtured and matured in any successful innovation pipeline.
In your statement: “Organizations reflect this, and often execute ideas that are truly mediocre — because they have nothing else” you seem to generalize that organization are equally unskilled in the generation of executable ideas. Again this is a matter of liberation and innovation management, something we work with day in and day out. Ideas, while they are a dime a dozen, are more like fuel for innovation, and execution is the vehicle driving through any innovation pipeline. I too wrote an article in response to Patrick Lefler’s blog, that speaks more to this subject and my colleague, Professor Markham wrote one equally as well around executing ideas in the “ever tightening corset of corporate capabilities.” Here are both links, I would interested to have you share your perspective:
http://execed.mgt.ncsu.edu/creativity-fuels-the-innovation-pipeline/
http://execed.mgt.ncsu.edu/idea-mania-needs-medication/
Thanks for your very lucid comments Paul. Yes, balance is the thing isn’t it. Another way to look at this is that innovation isn’t a problem to solve, it’s a Polarity to Manage.
Totally agree that people can be very good at idea generation in the right context. Would stand by my words in that, on average, the unpracticed, un-enabled, poorly facilitated corporate brainstormer is rather unfluid. Something like a talented but unfit athlete coming off an injury. I don’t think we really disagree on the ability to generate executable ideas, I Know They Can, but in the context of the one-time-a-year type organization they are really not exercising their full capability. And yes, I am generalizing! There are plenty of organizations who are both fluid at idea generation and swift to execute with precision.
Will definitely check out those posts. Regards, GF