While discussing topics for the blog recently, one of us asked the question: "What makes an idea good?". We thought we'd throw this out to a few Kindling employees and friends and see what where people take it. The responses will be posted here all week as a part of this series.
I’m going to make a confession: I hate handing out advice on how to be better at pretty much anything. There’s an entire industry built around sharing the best kept secrets on how you can innovate or how you can capitalize on the Next Great Business Idea. For me, it’s almost like picking up a book co-written by Cézanne and Monet entitled “Killer Art: 5 Key Motivators to Nailing Impressionist Painting.”
I’m highly suspicious of any technique, methodology or seminar that promises to transform you into an Good-Idea-Generating-Machine. What I believe we can do is create an environment that allows for the possibility of good ideas to arise. Each of our minds is indelibly shaped by the social and physical environment we occupy. If you’re not getting water and sunshine, it’s incredibly difficult to flourish.
Free to Roam
Ideas aren’t produced. They happen organically. An idea is, by definition, a departure. It’s a step away from the norm. To find new ideas (and by “find” I literally mean stumble upon an idea that you would otherwise never discover) you have to be willing to drift off and think in a divergent way. Pre-conceived notions of how the world works have to be brought into question and doubt. It’s almost a child-like reversion to questioning and doubting just about everything around you.
For most of us in the modern world, divergent thinking isn’t encouraged. It’s written off as “daydreaming” or “not grounded in reality.” Both labels, while bearing negative connotations, are true. A prerequisite for a good idea is that it not be grounded in reality. Reality is the status quo. It’s the sum total of past ideas and nothing more.
He was not grounded in reality. Or bound by it.
This all leads to an important question about work and life environment: do you allow yourself or others to roam? Do you provide the encouragement, time and opportunities for people to stray off the well-worn trails? Does your company or organization have the proper mechanisms to give people the necessary comfort and encouragement to walk away from the day-to-day and just play around?
Bring it Home
Divergent thinking is one half of a good idea. The other key ingredient is taking that thought and bringing it back to reality. We all want flying cars, but such an idea without some breakthrough on safety, feasibility and cost effectiveness, isn’t a good idea. It’s just fantasy. Good ideas materialize from the synthesis of out-of-the-box divergent thinking and a thoughtful and rigorous application in reality. Eventually, the constraints and pitfalls of the real world have to come into play. Otherwise, they’re just ideas living in a vacuum.
The Secret Formula?
I started this essay by deriding the quick fix books on innovation and the ill-conceived attempts at shrinking thoughts down into a snack-sized methodology or “process.” Yet if you read the above, it appears that I’ve done exactly that: shared a “formula for success.” That wasn’t the intention. The above are key prerequisites and not much more. Good ideas come from smart people who aren’t afraid to roam. Unfortunately in most of today’s work environments, roaming isn’t encouraged. The bigger the organization, the weaker the stomach for roaming.
This is why most of the disruption comes from the small and nimble. They don’t bear the weight of the organizational maze and fear of risk. Formulas and methodologies are great if there is truly an arena to play. The question of “what makes an idea good?” is misleading in my view. Good and bad ideas abound everywhere. Humans are hard-wired to aspire to something beyond what exists today. We just need to encourage people to wander off and come back home – ideas in hand.
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