Putting Ideas to Work

Successfully implementing business ideas

Having a great idea is one thing, making it succeed is quite another. Many brilliant ideas remain hidden because of poor execution, while others that should never get out of the focus group too often do. So, what are the rules when implementing great business ideas, where are the pitfalls and how can they be overcome?

The Guiding Principles

It’s useful to understand three guiding principles. First, implementing great ideas requires a balance between a big picture view and detailed planning, both are vital. Second, personal responsibility and flexibility are vital. Too often, people complain that circumstances have changed so it is not possible to implement the idea. This overlooks an eternal truth: the fact that things will always change. What matters is adopting a flexible, resourceful attitude. It’s not what you know that matters, but how you react to what you do not know. Finally, there is no quick solution, no silver bullet or magic formula. Instead, success can be achieved with a few simple techniques and strong leadership.

Leadership Skills and Techniques

One leadership skill that assumes special significance when implementing ideas is visioning. This means inspiring a sense of purpose and belief by communicating a simple, clear, compelling vision to those involved. This then provides a touchstone to guide decisions, focusing the way people think and work. Also, if people have a shared sense of purpose it is easier to initiate actions to achieve that purpose. Visioning is valuable because it promotes teamworking and consistency with everyone working towards the same goal.

A vision of how the idea will succeed needs to come from the leader and it should have several essential characteristics. It needs to be powerful, painting a clear picture of the future as well as exciting and inspiring people. It needs to be easily communicated, desirable and realistic. The vision needs to be specific and ‘real-world’ enough to guide decision-making and, finally, it should also be adaptive: able to accommodate individual initiatives and flexible enough to allow for changing conditions.

You can get people to understand and support the vision by: communicating in an exciting and practical way, speaking positively so that people are intrigued, challenged and motivated. It also helps to be honest and open about your plans. Encourage people to see what the vision means for them and bring the vision to life, ideally with examples.

A great vision needs to be balanced with detailed planning and monitoring, proving the point that great leaders balance a big picture view with a detailed approach. So, don’t leave things to chance, especially technology. Prepare a plan and set realistic and challenging goals that are specific, measurable and time-constrained. Also, look to achieve progress steadily and ‘grow’ your idea; keep it simple, test and practice, rather than rushing things. Next, monitor and measure progress; remember that what gets measured gets managed. Finally, stay flexible and ready to make adjustments. The implementation plan needs to be capable of coping with changing circumstances. If it is too rigid or inflexible then it is likely to fail.

Another valuable technique is to manage risk and adopt a questioning approach. There are no downsides: questioning will help you be prepared for any eventuality, stay on track and build confidence. For example, consider: what could go wrong? Where are the risks and how are these being managed? Are we delivering the most valuable aspects of this idea? What adjustments do we need to make? Scenario planning is a great technique to help you understand the issues.

Questioning is also useful because it supports another useful technique: the need to develop empathy. Too many ideas fail because they don’t view the innovation through the eyes of people outside the immediate implementation team. Empathy can be achieved by understanding different motivations and priorities, for example, consider how you and others might react or behave in certain situations.

Several specific leadership skills are especially significant when implementing ideas. It’s vital to build a strong team and then give that team energy, belief and focus. Leaders also need to be decisive, as well as managing and securing resources, encouraging creative thinking, communicating and providing feedback, managing performance and developing a ‘no blame’ culture. All of these are prerequisites for a strong implementation team.

There are several practical steps that leaders can take to help new ideas succeed. For example, it is important to confront problems early and remove any constraints, such as bureaucracy, that block implementation. This shows determination, provides inspiration and helps set the pace. Also, support people: help them develop their skills and achieve their potential. This will help improve the quality of implementation as well as sustaining success.

Avoiding the Pitfalls

The way people think affects the way that ideas are applied. For example, the status quo trap biases us towards maintaining the current situation – even when better alternatives exist – due to inertia or the potential loss of face if the current position was to change. The sunk-cost trap inclines us to perpetuate the mistakes of the past, because the investment involved makes abandonment of previous decisions unthinkable. The over-confidence trap occurs when a decision maker has an exaggerated belief in their ability to understand situations and predict the future. The prudence trap leads us to be over-cautious when estimating risk. There is a tendency to be very risk averse and is likely to occur when there is a decision dilemma – when the decision maker feels both the current approach and alternative courses carry risks.

As well as these thinking flaws there are two potential pitfalls resulting from the culture or environment of the organization: fragmentation and groupthink. Fragmentation occurs when people are in disagreement, either with their peers or their superiors. Usually, the expression of emerging dissent is disguised or suppressed. Groupthink is the opposite of fragmentation, occurring when the group suppresses ideas that are critical or not in support of the direction in which the group is moving. The group appears to be in agreement or certain but is neither. The longer it lasts, the more entrenched and ‘normal’ it becomes. It can be very difficult to reverse.

So, what are the solutions? The first step is to be bold and don’t fear the consequences of decisions – we tend to over-estimate the consequences, good and bad, of our choices. We also tend to discount our ability to make the right choice because of ‘loss aversion’: the view that a loss will hurt more than a gain will please. Next, trust your instincts and emotions. We have evolved to make good decisions and manage their implementation. Sometimes, quick decisions work best precisely because you have picked up on key pieces of information quickly. More time can simply lead to information-overload and other distractions. Also, be prepared to play devil’s advocate – searching for flaws and failings will strengthen your decisions. Other important points are to avoid irrelevancies, reframe decisions and view issues from a new perspective. Finally, don’t let the past hold you back: dare to be different. Possibly the greatest aspect of implementing new ideas is the fact that they lead to greater progress and success.