What's the Big Idea?

That’s a great question! Where should we begin?

I’m an idea person. I’ve always got a new one, well before the last one has been fully explored or even elaborated.

Some ideas are born while seeking solutions to problems. Some are suggested by the words I hear, the images I see. Others are the product of brainstorming, formal or not.

Every once in a while I have a great one. Most crash and burn before hitting the floor. Frequently it’s not the idea but the inability to get support for it.

Of course not all the best ideas are mine. Ideas from colleagues at work. Competing ideas. Do I embrace? Resist? Extend?

Even the best ideas are totally, completely, 100 percent worthless without execution. And sometimes when you look back at that rare perfectly composed and implemented idea you discover, “Yeah, that didn’t really amount to anything after all.”

Ideas are easy for me. They occur without effort. I can hardly shut them off. Sometimes I have to keep them to myself to avoid alienating others. Or distracting them.

Ideas? Great! Getting things done? Way better!

Here’s a recent idea: I want to start writing again. And so I thought, let’s gin up a new blog and use it to write, explore, and connect.

I’m going to write about ideas, experiences I've had, and lessons I've learned along the way. Some of that involves leadership, organizational development, strategy, public finance. Innovation. Change.

And then there’s music, especially improvised jazz. Creativity.

Years ago, a friend and I shopped around a book proposal connecting business with jazz. The core idea involved leading your team at work the way Miles Davis or John Coltrane led their combos:

• Hire great people.
• Let them do what they do best.
• Support their development.
• Listen with big ears.
• Create in the moment.
• Provide opportunity.
• Make it safe for them to try anything!
• Dazzle each other and the world!

While we never wrote that book, I have explored the jazz + business idea while leading my own teams. It definitely has resonance for me.

Maybe I'll dig into that theme, right along with some of the other ideas I've been kicking around. And some waiting to be born.

Let’s see where this goes!

Thanks!

Bill

P.S. For more info about my professional background, see my LinkedIn profile.