Making Ideas Happen

Making Ideas Happen is a systematized approach to coming up with creative ideas and, more importantly, actually executing them, that teams and companies can use to move their business and the world forward.

As long as you’re in school, life is wonderfully straightforward. Turn to page 19 of your workbook, do exercise 7f, 3g and 12a and you’re done for the day. But the minute you finish it and want to get something done in the real world, you’ll realize life is actually a whole lot messier.

Your boss won’t tell you who to send the email to, which task you should take care of first and what creating a marketing plan specifically contains.

But don’t fret. Scott has simple three-category approach to tackling projects, which, with a little thinking, will make your life almost as easy as it used to be in school.

Let’s say you’re given the job of hosting a workshop for your sales team. You can then start working out the three different kinds of tasks you have to take care of:

Action steps. The actual steps you have to take in minute detail, which in this case will range from “create participants list” over “book a room” to “write outline for the program,” etc. References. Valuable pieces and sources of information you’ll want to consult or look at for your project, for example adjusting the program in accordance with all sales team leaders or looking at last year’s sales numbers so you know what needs to be improved. Backburner items. The things that would be “nice to have,” but aren’t necessities. Decorating the room or arranging an afterwork dinner party, for example will improve your workshop, but aren’t vital parts in pulling it off and can be left aside if time gets tight.

By sorting your tasks into these three buckets, you’ll have a clear picture of what to do first and a good overview of what really needs to be done for a project to be successful.

Knowing your tasks is one thing. Knowing yourself is another. According to Scott Belsky, there are three types of people when it comes to making creative projects a reality: Dreamers. You know, the guy with hundreds of ideas, but not much results to show for, because he’s so preoccupied with coming up with new, arguably awesome ideas, that he has a hard time seeing one of them through. Doers. The pragmatic girl from accounting, who always asks about the financials first, because she’s focused on what’s feasible and realistic. While good at finishing projects, she can’t really warm herself to new and exciting ideas. Incrementalists. The people who can do both when they need to. The thing…