A while back, Michael Hyatt shared a list of interview questions about leadership. These questions got me thinking. I’ll be sharing my thoughts in a series of posts here on my blog.
Where do the great ideas come from in your organization?
There are all sorts of great ideas. Great ideas that come from the top, great ideas that come from the bottom. Some great ideas come out of thin air. Others are long, laborious processes where we work the kinks out and form an idea over a long period of time.
The most powerful ideas come from those people that are closest to the client, closest to the problem, and who collaborate tightly with others. You see the best “aha!” moments, the best ideas are fueled and formed by individuals or small teams who thrive off of the collection of information.
These people are naturally curious. These people love to ask questions. They collect data, they collect information, and they’re always reading. They’re up to speed on their emails. They read the news. They listen to public radio. They collect information from all sorts of different diverse sources, even things that may be non-core to the business they’re in or the life they lead.
These people learn to collect information and connect dots. They identify trends and they apply these learnings not only to the situations they observed them in but they learn to apply them to new situations. These types of ideas, those that are formed through the collection of information and data, from diverse sources and are drawn through conclusions and insights, those are the most powerful, the most creative, the great ideas.
Where do the great ideas come from in your organization?