CHICAGO-Why are some people and some teams so consistent in making creative things happen again and again, and others are not-again and again?
That's a question Scott Belsky has spent a lot of time looking into. Belsky, author of "Making Ideas Happen" and founder and CEO of Behance (which helps make ideas happen in companies), said he has discovered that "ideas don't happen because they're great or by accident. There are a series of other forces at play."
Those "forces" were examined by Belsky during comments at the CO-OP THINK '13 Conference here, and he offered some insights to credit unions on what they can do to bring new ideas to fruition-and to stop doing what most often happens in organizations-squelching good ideas.
"When a new idea strikes, energy and excitement are high," said Belsky. "We're trying to solve a problem. Everyone is around the table and saying, 'OK, let's do this.' Then a few days pass and the inbox starts to overflow and real life catches up with you, and energy and excitement start to subside and you enter the doldrums of project management. You want to escape that. So what do you do? You just come up with another idea."
Belsky said organizations must survive what he dubbed the "Project Plateau." It's at that stage, he said, where the gravitational force of operations ("urgent always beats the important. We risk not ever doing the things that need to be done over the long term") leads to a lack of feeling organized. It also leads to a lack of accountability (not ready to tell anyone, and it never happens); a lack of leadership accountability, and a lack of feedback exchange (someone takes risk to share their ideas, but people don't want to take the risk of giving feedback, and the other person gets defensive).
Belsky said there are three strategies for bringing great ideas to the forefront.
Organization & Execution
Organization & Execution are howyou manage your time, meetings, schedule, take notes, know what's actionable, etc.
Belsky pointed to what he called a "sobering realization," that everyone is under a tsunami of e-mails, LinkedIn alerts, text messages and other "overwhelming stuff" at any one time. "You start to live a life where we are simply pecking away at the collective inboxes around us. We need to reserve spaces for that deep thinking."
Belsky urged spending energy on staying organized, offering the equation that "Creativity x organization = the impact you will have with your idea."
The common theme he said he has seen in organizations that are successful is a "bias toward action...A lot of teams hold meetings that are just standing; knees get weak and people say, 'Let's get to it.'"
He urged credit unions to "optimize to surpass your horizon of success. "The problem with the saying 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it,' is that you can never optimize things, especially when they are already successful. I really believe that success breeds complacency."
Communal Forces
Communal forces is the second part of getting traction with ideas, according to Belsky, who said there are three types of people: Dreamers, Do-ers, and Incrementalists." Ideas originate with Dreamers, and while the Do-er may be seen as the "Debbie Downer of the world," the Do-er is "necessary to keep the trains on time."
The Incrementalists, meanwhile, rotate from Dreamer to Do-er. "Their problem is they go back and forth between the two things and never achieve scale."
And Belsky cautioned, "You don't want to be burdened by consensus, the lowest common denominator; the idea no one likes but no one feels passionately about."
The Role of Leadership
The role of the leader on creative teams is critical, said Belsky, and also counterintuitive. "Leaders talk last so as not to silence the visionary. Leaders can talk first and say 'here's what I think, what do you think?' It stymies any original thinking. Better option is to say, 'here's the problem, what do you think we should do?' If someone else has the same idea as the leader, it's best, because then they will execute it. "
Belsky urged credit unions to "gain confidence from doubt. "If everyone thinks you are crazy, you either are crazy, or you're really on to something...Nothing extraordinary is ever achieved through ordinary means."
