The best thing about being a consultant is when you return to see how well clients have got on with delivering the big ideas that they spoke about the last time you were there. The worst is when you return to find those big ideas are still just that: ideas, being talked about, but not being delivered.
Does that sound familiar? How many of the new growth ideas that you talked about this time last year are now a core part of your business?
Making the transition from having ideas, to delivering a continuous pipeline of fantastic stuff, isn’t rocket science and it doesn’t have to bring the organisation to a grinding halt. You just need to focus for a couple of weeks, make some decisions, get organised and commit to a course of action. In fact, there are just seven steps you need to take:
Step 1: List out all the opportunities: unleash your creativity, make those connections, mine colleagues, customers and partners for ideas
Step 2: Filter those that fit: be objective about what your business can do and where you can add more value than other people could
Step 3: Prioritise by potential: decide which of the opportunities will make the biggest difference and which of those would be easiest to do
Step 4: Plan the route: pick the top two or three opportunities, allocate owners, and ask them to scope it out and plan their approach
Step 5: Step on the gas: agree how you can manage and support the owners, giving them the freedom to flex but ensuring they deliver, and deliver at pace
Step 6: Seed, weed and feed: try multiple ways to crack each opportunity, push hard, but quickly weed out the weakest ideas
Step 7: Champion the change: build a "culture of innovation" to ensure the pipeline stays high up on the agenda; celebrate success and reward great ideas, even if they fail
Follow the link on each step to start turning your best ideas into real life successes.