Idea ‘Agents’
April 24, 2008 by Holst Group
Edward de Bono’s Message
It would be nice to have a team of highly effective people who would take an idea, run with it and make it happen. Unfortunately such people are too busy and too successful pursuing ideas of their own.
As a second choice it would also be nice to have a team of highly effective ‘agents’ who could take an idea and find a home for it. In both cases the financial rewards could be very generous – because otherwise the ideas remain unused.
The paradox is that having the idea is only a small part of making it happen. Implementation is more difficult and much harder work. Yet, without the initial idea there is nothing to implement
It is a bit of a quandry – people come up with the ideas but then don’t have the time or sometimes the skills to implement them.
Where will new ideas have the greatest impact? Is it in a specialised innovation group or having the agents scattered around the organisation?
I think both are applicable. It is critical that employees understand understand the difference between creativity and innovation. They also need to be aware of how to create, track and implement ideas and the organisation needs to support it with training and specific tools.
Once employees understand the innovation process specialised innovation groups *and* scattered agents can work in harmony.