Karl Edwards presents Working Matters

Tag: ideas

  • Loving Monday: Too Long in the Idea-Sphere?

    loving_mondayAn idea cannot be perfected without taking the first practical step.

    Sure it would be nice to work out all the kinks ahead of time.

    Sure it would be nice to commit to the project without risk.

    Real is the danger, though, of never taking the first step at all. Very possible, we discover, is missing out on an opportunity because of postponing the first step too long.

    Ideas can only float around in the idea-sphere so long.

    A good idea is only as good as it leaves the idea-sphere, takes concrete form, and becomes a reality.

    The problem with reality is that it is messy, problematic, and complicated. It feels like our pristine idea becomes diminished, polluted, or compromised as it takes practical form.

    And so we keep working on it. Keeping it in the idea-sphere where we can work through all the messy, problematic complications until it is perfect. Until it is as pristine and beautiful in reality as it is in our dream.

    We may keep working on it… forever.

    As you begin this week, take one practical, concrete step toward the implementation of one of your ideas.

    One step, however messy, problematic or complicated.

    One step.

    On your side,

    – Karl Edwards

    Loving Monday is a weekly column designed to encourage us to step into our weeks with an intention to show up authentically, engage fully, and choose to make it a good week for ourselves. Explore past columns here.

  • A Solution in Search of a Problem

    It is no secret that we get things backwards once in a while.

    Most common is when we discover a solution in search of a problem.

    Once in a while, an unanticipated solution reveals a “problem” that we didn’t know we had. The iPod and iTunes are good examples. It wasn’t until we had the option of listening to songs in any order we wanted and buying them in any combination we wanted that it occurred to us that the “album” package was severely limiting.

    More commonly we have a brilliant inspiration for a new policy or procedure, gadget or widget, service or organization, but then discover that we are filling a gap no one else perceives or solving a problem no one else is experiencing.

    Government agencies are famously addicted to designing rules, processes, paperwork, and systems that either serve no purpose at all (save justify someone’s departmental budget), or address an instance so peculiar and particular that the cost and burden to the 99.9% for whom that instance does not apply scandalously outweighs the benefit to the isolated few.

    In between the visionary iPod and the short-sighted NLRB dictating in which states a business can and cannot do business while jobs increasingly move to other countries altogether, is where most of us operate… trying to do a good job, make a difference, and add value.

    So three cheers for the creativity, initiative, and energy involved in proposing new ideas!

    Where we want to catch ourselves… What we want to make sure we have considered… What we want to stay laser-focused on… is what problem, real or perceived, our idea is solving.

    A solution without a problem risks being ignored as irrelevant, dismissed as extravagant, or opposed as burdensome.

    How do you communicate your great ideas?

    How well do you identify and explain the problem being addressed and the costs of not addressing it?

    It may be discouraging to discover that you have come upon a solution in search of a problem. But it will be disastrous if you continue to sell, implement, and/or impose your solution without one.

    On your side,

    – Karl Edwards

  • Listen In -> Paying Attention to Attentiveness #5: Attentive to Ideas and Trends

    You remember the LP? The cassette? The 8-track tape? The compact disc?

    What if your entire business model was structured around a 10-year plan that included one of those now sidelined technologies? What if it was six years into that plan that the iPod emerged and your entire industry almost or completely disappeared?

    The speed with which fashions, fads, and technologies come and go is dizzying. Which brings us to this week’s show.

    Five and ten-year plans cannot be made—much less implemented—without paying attention to ideas and trends.

    How many leading industries did not even exist ten years ago? How many have disappeared altogether in the same period?

    How do you pay attention to ideas and trends? Your viability as a business may depend on it.

    Listen in.

    Just now joining the conversation? Catch up on the entire series here.

  • Thought Leaders Unpacked -> What the Dog Saw #10: Something Borrowed

    thought-leadersWhen is stealing not stealing? What belongs to everyone even though a particular someone is the creator?

    For those of us who trade in words, believe in the power of words, and watch lives change on the turn of a phrase, it’s an important question.

    What-the-Dog-SawThis week’s chapter out of What the Dog Saw, wasn’t so much a mind-bending eye-opener for me as it was a thoughtful reflection on creativity, the propagation of ideas, and ownership rights for those who write.

    Continuing to stir in my mind is the inherent conflict between creating/owning an idea, which seeks to exclude everyone else; and propagating/influencing others with your ideas, which seeks to include everyone else.

    We both want our ideas to take hold on as wide a basis a possible, and we want to benefit ourselves from the recognition and revenue that their value earns.

    Keep it to ourselves where we keep control, or get it out there where we lose control?

    Copyright  laws are intended to give us a way to hold both extremes in tension. With the explosion of information and content on the internet, creativity, ownership and the value of content is getting more and more difficult to distinguish.

    To which end of the spectrum do you lean? Tightly control your content or disseminate it widely? What was you main take-away from this chapter?

    Each Friday I post my reflections from one chapter of What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell. If you are just joining the discussion now, welcome! Catch up on the entire series here.

  • Question of the Week

    What unanticipated new ideas are being birthed as your team goes about their work?