Becoming An Ideas Generator

Mal Fletcher Added 13 December 2008

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Ideas Are Developed By Design Not By Accident

Life is full of 'suddenlies'. You know - those moments when life surprises you, confronting you with something unexpected and unexpectedly exciting.

In those moments, you can't afford to rely simply on happenstance or fate to decide your next move. When new opportunities are presented, you need to be ready to grab them and make of them a platform for new influence.

If you're going to be ready for new influence when it arrives, you will need to be an ideas person. Not just someone who is comfortable with other people having ideas; but an individual who is marked out for their ability to generate ideas, finding solutions sometimes out of what seems like thin air.

In so many spheres of leadership today - from business, to government, to church and community life - new ideas are rare. Everybody seems content to move along quietly and meekly with the crowd, never stopping long enough to ask a question or challenge a preconceived idea.

'The greatest pain to human nature,' said Walter Bagehot, 'is the pain of a new idea.'

Some other sage pointed out that the seven last words of a dying organisation are: 'It's never been done this way before.'

In my experience, many leaders are not reaching their full potential simply because they're reluctant to engage the world of ideas. Yet ideas are the great motivators of change. Ideas drive history forward.

Technology is more than the practical application of scientific enterprise; it is the embodiment of fresh ideas.

Ideas are also the core of all good communication. What is communication, at its core, except the bringing of people together around great and worthy ideas?

Ideas are the birthplace of great causes, too. People will fight to protect their ideals; but ideals are born out of ideas.

In short, ideas are the true stuff of leadership. No ideas, means no ideals, which equates to no creation or renewing of cultures, which equals no leadership.

We cannot call ourselves leaders unless we're constantly training ourselves to generate and work with ideas.

It's not enough for a leader to identify problems, or even to have vague notions about how to solve them. It's not even enough for a leader to stand and shout, 'I have a dream…'

Even the most inspiring dream must be matched to tangible ideas, which will produce strategies that lead to pragmatic results.

There's an ancient story from the Middle East about a young man who, having undergone years of suffering in prison for a crime he didn't commit, was suddenly brought before a king. The king had heard of this young man's unusual skill at interpreting dreams and giving prophecies.

Troubled by some dreams of his own, the ruler asked the young man what they meant. The interpretation was swift and concise: the dream related to an ecological disaster that was about to befall his people, but one which he could remedy if he acted quickly.

'The king's dream means that there will be seven years of plenty in the land,' announced the young captive, 'followed by seven year's of severe drought and hunger.'

He didn't finish there. 'The king should appoint a man who will tax the people of their produce during the good years, storing the food in great barns for the tough years ahead.'

The king was so impressed with the young man's idea that he instantly promoted him to a senior ministry role in his government. The young man stepped quite suddenly into great influence because he was practised in the art of having and using problem-solving ideas.

What was true of the king in this story is true of all high-powered leaders up to the present day. Leaders who carry great responsibility for the lives of others, are looking for other leaders who can help them produce results - i.e. leaders with ideas.

The ability to capture and develop ideas is as much a skill as an art - it can be learned and practised. We become people of ideas by deliberately developing our mental muscle.

I am sometimes amazed at how little leaders read - and how uninspiring are their choices of reading material.

Edward de Bono said: 'To write about the past you only need some skill as a writer: the past is there to be described. To write about the future also needs some skill as a thinker.' If we're to be future-minded and strategic leaders people, we need to think!

Obesity is a huge problem in today's world. It results from taking in more than we can burn off in useful physical activity.

Mental obesity can be just as dangerous. It involves taking in more than we can burn off in useful mental activity.

The knowledge base in our world is doubling every two years at present, and the rate is increasing.

It's often been said that the average newspaper today contains more systematic information than the average person would have come across in a lifetime two or three centuries ago. There are now at least twice as many words in the English language as there were in the time of Shakespeare. If the bard were to turn up in our time, he would understand less than half of what we're talking about!

Add to that the fact that every one of us will be confronted by between 1600 and 3000 commercial messages every day of our lives, and you begin to see the overload of information coming at us from all sides.

We need to burn off some of that overload; to use our knowledge in constructive ways. Otherwise our minds become sluggish and unproductive. The brain needs exercise. Our brains need for us to take on new challenges and explore fresh areas of interest, not out of compulsion, but because of desire.

Is there something you'd love to learn to do? Is there a type of literature you'd like to start exploring, or a new area of the arts you think you'd enjoy, or a new place you'd like to visit? Or some form of community work for which you'd like to volunteer? Why not start indulging that interest now?

We become people of ideas by making a practice of having ideas.

If, as some psychologists have suggested, only perhaps six percent of our ideas are really useful, the more ideas we have, the greater the chance that we'll come up with something really revolutionary!

With ideas, quantity leads to quality.

We become ideas generators when we allow our ideas to be tested. The greatest ideas will require risk. At some point, we'll need to put our head on the chopping block in support of our ideas.

This is why some people are useless in brainstorming sessions: they just won't take the risk of saying something that may be of little worth.

It's one thing to have ideas in an environment where everybody tells you what you want to hear, because they don't want to hurt you. It's another thing to declare an idea in a place where others are likely to be brutally honest, or where it will take a while for the benefits of your idea to become apparent.

Great ideas are worth the risk.

Some leaders will never step up to a higher level of influence simply because they won't take a chance, they won't allow their ideas to be subjected to trial.

Finally, being an ideas person involves an attitude of service. Helen Keller said, 'Life is an exciting business and most exciting when lived for others.'

Morgan Spurlock's entertaining documentary, Super Size Me, demonstrated how much damage a steady diet of fast food can do to the human body.

At the end of a 30 day marathon of eating nothing but McDonald's fast food, the downhill spiral in Spurlock's health left even the medicos in shock.

The best thing about this movie, and the reason it has had an impact on viewers the world over, is that Spurlock put his own health on the line to make a point he felt needed to be made - a point that would benefit others.

We live in a world of claim and counter-claim, of polls proving this and polls proving that. So it's refreshing to see someone putting his or her future on the line for a cause.

Real moral authority comes to those who put themselves in the firing line.

Leadership is fundamentally about developing ideas, bringing other people into that process and then ensuring that those ideas are fully tested, even at personal cost.