What’s the best new idea you heard this week?
That question might make you groan, close your eyes, rub your forehead, scan your checked-off to-do list…or maybe it just makes you tired. Is it time for a nap yet?
Because most of us, no matter what our job is, are focused on getting things DONE. We’re looking for answers to the most pressing problems staring us down TODAY. Who has time for “big ideas”? Who has the brain space?
Answer: WE ALL DO!
For the past few years, I have spent a lot of time on the phone with leaders of companies. Founders, owners, people who are steering a ship, responsible for a lot of other people, and trying to make good decisions. These people are stressed as hell. Their time is stretched, their inboxes are overflowing, and they don’t have a lot of extra time or mental space.
Which makes it hard to work together, since my goal usually is helping people slow down, step back, scan the horizon, and go deep. I’m helping them understand the conversations happening about their work and their industry, and figure out what they could add to those conversations to move their brands forward. It’s hard work, and it requires that they care just as much about new ideas as they do about today’s fire drills.
And, spoiler alert, I can’t just give them ideas. I can’t decide what they should care about, or what their company should stand for. The ideas have to be grounded in their own experience from the past, perspective about the present, and outlook for the future.
So my work can be pretty frustrating. I run into a lot of dead ends. People cancel phone calls because they can’t deal with my questions. They go MIA for weeks at a time because of board meetings or because their right-hand person quit, or because their marketing strategy keeps falling lower on their list of must-solve problems this week. Or…because they’re afraid that they don’t have any ideas.
Here’s what I’ve learned to help people develop their thinking, and even enjoy doing it: I start putting them in the way of new ideas.
I become a researcher and curator, and when I find something interesting, I slide it in front of them. If I find something really good, they stop the constant spinning and procrastinating. They start mulling. They think things over on their commute. They come back to me saying things like, “I really liked that idea, AND” or “I agree with what she’s saying, BUT” or “I wonder if there’s ALSO research about this other part…”
AND, BUT and ALSO. Music to my ears.
Sometimes it’s hard to generate new ideas without a foundation to start from. Sometimes we have to see the current body of research, or read someone else’s opinion, to get our wheels turning. AND, BUT and ALSO.
So, the solution to “idea block”? Get in the way of new ideas. Here’s how I do it: I read (and listen) for hours and hours every week. I’m always looking for new ideas, controversial takes, weird research, great business books, bad business books, podcasts about anything and everything — I want to see all of it because I know that it’s all fuel for new ideas. I get in the way. I look for the AND, BUT and ALSO.
Recently, I’ve been researching the idea of quiet, empathetic leadership for a project I’m working on. I picked up the book “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking” by Susan Cain (such a good title, right?). This book is fascinating, and it charts the shift in American culture that happened around the turn of the last century — a shift from an agricultural society where people were rewarded for being good, quiet, and kind, to an industrial society where to succeed, you had to have a dazzling personality. You had to sell yourself. You had to be an extrovert.
Cain goes deep into the history of introversion, the way “shy” children are treated by adults, and how the tyranny of extroversion plays out at work. She gathers stories and research from all kinds of unlikely places and ties it together. She puts her reader in the way of new ideas.
So where am I going with all of this? Let’s go back to that stressed-out, time-strapped leader I mentioned above. A lot of people come to me and say, “I don’t know if I’d consider myself an ‘expert,’ but I want to write/talk/speak about this topic.” They want to be curators of good ideas. They want to find them, filter them, and share them.
But you can’t do that in a vacuum. You have to make time and space to find those ideas. You have to get in the way of them to develop your AND, BUT and ALSOs. You need a long reading list and more source material than you’ll ever have time to read. (Side note: I could start a book club called Beginnings of Business Books if anyone wants to join.)
Here’s my message for you: Get in the way of more new ideas. Read the first chapter of more books. Listen. Look. Find out what other people are saying. What makes you say “AND, BUT or ALSO”?
So I’ll ask again: What’s the best new idea you heard this week? If you don’t have an answer, how are you going to get in the way of more new ideas next week?
I’d love to hear! Tell me what you’re exploring.
