We need ideas…and lots of them. 

Economies around the world are dealing with a serious downturn and one of the key defining aspects are the large number of different strategies being thrown at the problem in order to stop the bleeding.

That’s a good thing…kind of; I’ve always said, the more ideas you can get, the better placed you are to convert a winner.

The more random and unconstrained the idea creation proces is, the more likely you are to obtain a solution/s that is/are revolutionary and sets a new, positive course that can then evolve and improve. 

Here’s the ‘however’ to that: What I am seeing is a raft of new ideas and strategies to put economies back on course, but the rigour behind the way those ideas are transperantly processed, assessed and prioritised is being neglected in the haste to implement.  This flows on to the way success (or not) is measured.

This can cause some long term damage to the business improvement creative process as failures due to poor idea assessment and prioritisation actually end up reflecting on the idea creation process. This in turn compromises the efforts of creative advocates and Community Managers as they try to establish a free thinking and open creative culture and framework within the business.

Now is the time to encourage creative activity and get the ideas flowing, but don’t allow the urgency to compromise your assessment, prioritisation, implementation and measurement process/es.