In 1982, Michael Keaton and Henry Winkler starred in the movie Night Shift. Henry and Michael played two attendants holding down the night shift at the city morgue. Henry played Chuck; an uptight, reserved, by the book employee, while Michael played Bill; an off-the-wall, self-professed “idea man.” Bill lived Steinbeck’s quote, “Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.” In fact, he even carried around a portable cassette player so he could record all of his great ideas. In one scene of the movie, Bill is eating a tuna fish sandwich; he pauses for a moment and records one of his great ideas: pack the tuna in the can with mayonnaise! Bill pauses for a moment and then he says, “Hold the phone! Why don’t they just feed the fish mayonnaise?” Although in 1982 when Keaton came up with the idea of packing the tuna in the can with mayonnaise, everyone in the theater laughed, it was only a few years later that manufacturers did start packing tuna in the can with mayonnaise. What a great idea.
As a leader, do you come up with great ideas or help facilitate your team to come up with innovative ideas? In some ways, all of us have a little Bill in us when it comes to developing ideas. If you think about it, we may have hundreds of different ideas during the day. Most of the time, our ideas are little ones and we do not take action at that moment. The bigger ideas? We may even write them down on a napkin or a “things to do” list.
So what if you find that you’re more like Chuck, and less like Bill, but need the ideas to start flowing? The following are six strategies that should help send great ideas your way.
Carve Out Time to Think
The biggest challenge in generating the big, strategic life- and business-changing ideas is finding the time to clear your mind and just think. Most leaders spend the majority of their time on operational duties and solving day-to-day problems. Find time where you can clear your mind of the day-to-day tasks and think about opportunities and what the future may be like.
Look Outside your Own World
If you only hang out with hammers, then every viable opportunity tends to look like a nail. Look at what other industries and businesses are doing and see how one of their ideas may connect to something you could develop into a great idea. Spend time with people outside your normal social group who have a reputation for generating creative ideas that lead to innovative success.
Hang Out with Creative, Innovative People
Some of your friends and business associates are always working on something creative and new. Some of their ideas work and become successful. Other ideas do not work. But, one thing all creative and innovative people do is they think, create and take action. If you want to be creative and have great ideas, spend time with the right type of people. Their drive, passion, and different ways of looking at things will be contagious.
Ask More Questions
Most leaders are good at looking at other business models and then quickly making a judgment of whether that would be good for their business. Fewer leaders dig deeper by asking more questions about why the other businesses made the decisions they did, how the decisions were implemented, and what outcomes or success they generated. It’s only when you dive deeper with questions that you are able to stimulate creative ideas that may bridge to your business.
Noodle your Ideas
If you have ever been a member of an orchestra, then you know about noodling. Prior to the conductor taking the stage and asking the first oboe to play an “A”, members of the orchestra are encouraged to play their instruments. The only thing they are usually requested not to do is play recognizable music or the tunes that will be played in that performance. As each musician joins the noodle, the medley gets louder with passion and excitement. For some musicians, making new music by noodling is another highlight in their performance. Noodling is a great example where a lot of different ideas can come together and build a bridge to something great.
Create an Idea Generation Exercise
List a problem or opportunity. Then, create a list of all the ideas you can think of that will take advantage of the opportunity or solve the problem. See if you can come up with 20 new ideas. When you run out of ideas, facilitate an idea generation session and see if you can build up the list to 40. With 40 ideas, you will find some great ones that are worth acting upon. Ideas, creativity and innovation are, in some ways, like hitting a baseball. To get into the Hall of Fame, you don’t need to hit every ball when you’re at bat; you only need to hit about three out of 10. It’s the same thing for ideas: every idea won’t result in a home run, but every now and then you will knock it out of the park.
The world needs both Bills and Chucks; however, if you ever find that you need to conjure up your inner Bill, these tips will help.
Would you add anything else to the list that has personally worked for you?
Image courtesy Flickr user Rakka
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