Ideas: Born or Made Implementable?

 

During a recent innovation workshop, the team had generated many ideas.

Yet they seemed underwhelmed.

When I asked why, one participant said:

"We are trying to find implementable ideas."

I had heard similar statements before:

"Let's focus on practical ideas."

"We need something we can actually implement."

My immediate response was:

"The job of innovators is not to find implementable ideas.

The job of innovators is to make ideas implementable."

The room paused.

Because that simple distinction changes the way we approach innovation.

Many organisations approach innovation as a search exercise. The objective is to find ideas that fit existing technologies, current budgets, available resources and established processes.

But if innovation is only about finding ideas that already fit the system, how much innovation are we likely to get?

Perhaps the real challenge is not finding implementable ideas …

but making valuable ideas implementable.

When teams worry that an idea is "not implementable", what they are often identifying is not a flaw in the idea – they are identifying a barrier:

  • A technology barrier
  • A cost barrier
  • A capability barrier
  • A process barrier
  • Or sometimes, simply a mindset barrier

The question is not whether the barriers exist.

The question is whether they are worth overcoming.

After all, ideas that are immediately implementable are often the easiest to pursue.

But not necessarily the most valuable.

Sometimes the biggest opportunities lie behind the biggest barriers.

Often, overcoming such barriers becomes an innovation challenge – a mini-challenge under the main challenge.

So, the next time you are generating ideas, resist the temptation to solve implementation challenges at the same time.

Allow ideas to emerge first.

Implementation challenges can always be addressed later.

After all, great ideas are rarely born implementable.

They are made implementable.

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