“None of us is as smart as all of us” -Ken Blanchard
Since products and frameworks can be standardized, people think that “anybody can do any thing” given the right guidance and support. Personally, I think that ideation and innovation are driven greatly by the biology of our brains.
Some people naturally generate more ideas. We usually describe these people as “creative”, “innovative”, and “imaginative”. Other people are gifted at the execution of those ideas and we commonly think of them as “go-getters” and “doers”. Still others we may think of as “empathetic”, “motivating” and as great “communicators” shine in people-management and relationship-building skills. Although an individual’s personality can mature given the right environment, we can still broadly group people into three categories based on whether their hardwired nature makes them idea-focused, task-focused or people-focused.
Here comes the tricky part. Earlier we could afford to have three different sets of people working together to deliver the desired product. One set could focus on generating the ideas and the other two sets could focus on leadership and execution. But now if you simply give an idea, even if it is a great one, no one will really value it. Some one else will steal your idea and deliver it faster. Ultimately, nobody cares whose idea it was. All people care about in the end is results. This is the hard truth.
To deliver an innovation in the fastest time possible, the innovator now has to think like a leader and form a well-suited and competent team to help her make her ideas a reality. This is very different from the earlier days where some high-flying, intellectual guy would come up with ideas inside a closed room and he would be looked upon as great.
Now innovating means delivering, not just having ideas. The major innovators of our generation have brought in ideas and implemented them for profits because that’s what all businesses care about the most- their bottom line. I strongly feel that real innovators are actually entrepreneurs.
So never forget that Innovation = Ideas + Implementation the next time you have a great idea!