Sometimes at the end of a Brainzooming strategic thinking exercise someone will say the ideas they generated were all old ideas already bouncing around the organization.
If old ideas keep surfacing with no specific resolution, there's a problem standing in the way of the organization creating strategic impact.
The problem isn't with a brainstorming technique, however.
The problem revolves around what does or doesn't happen after an organization generates an idea.
These three questions are vital to troubleshooting this issue:
- If an old idea is really a great idea, why hasn't it been implemented already?
- If an old idea that keeps coming up is a crappy idea, why hasn't it been publicly killed so people quit bringing it up all the time?
- If an old idea is somewhere between being a crappy idea and a great idea, why hasn’t it been adapted to turn it into a great idea – or killed as an idea if there really is no greatness in it?
While I'm a big believer in cultivating leftover ideas for a time when they may make more sense, at some point you need to get on with an old idea that’s really a great idea or say good riddance to repeatedly discussing an old idea that doesn’t warrant implementation.
What do you think of that idea? – Mike Brown
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The Brainzooming Group helps make smart organizations more successful by rapidly expanding their strategic options and creating innovative plans they can efficiently implement. Email us at info@brainzooming.com or call us at 816-509-5320 to learn how we can help you enhance your strategy and implementation efforts.
