Author Archive

Look Back to Move Forward

You are more certain to succeed with implementing your ideas when you develop a strategy for doing so. One way to determine your implementation strategy is to work backwards.

Determine your end result – what does your world look like when your idea is fully implemented? Then work backwards, identifying milestones along the way that must be in place in order for the next milestone to take place.

For example, I have an idea for a craft project. Working my way backwards to create my implementation strategy I identify the following milestones:

(9) End result (idea completed) = the finished craft project.

(8) Examine the assembled project.

(7) Permanently glue project components into place.

(6) Adjust for fit / changes.

(5) Put together the project components using temporary adhesion.

(4) Lay out the project components.

(3) Purchase / obtain the project components.

(2) Create a shopping list for the components of the project and necessary supplies.

(1) Sketch my vision of the craft project.

This backwards approach is akin to the commercial that shows a product being taken apart component by component. You peel back the layers of your idea, figuratively speaking.

Power of Community

How do you define "community"? Is it the houses or apartments in your neighborhood? Is it the people in your neighborhood? Is it the people who support you personally and professionally? Is it "yes" to all of these?

I'm writing about the later in this article – the people who support you personally and professionally. These are folks with whom you can collaborate to help you make your ideas reality and who can support you when you need support emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually. You may have two separate support systems – personal and professional. Some of the ways in which you experience your professional community supporting you and your ideas include networking, meeting colleagues for breakfast/lunch, happy hour events, 1-on-1 or small-group masterminds, actual coaching, joint ventures by project or as businesses, co-facilitating events or co-authoring books and products, and many more. If you are in business for yourself and consider yourself a solopreneur, you still need not work alone at all times.

I love my office which is based in my home. I like my neighborhood where I can leave my office in the middle of the day and take a walk with my dog around the neighborhood. I meet people who are retired or stay-at-home parents homeschooling their children and appreciate the community where "everybody knows your (dog's) name". Yet I miss the corporate environment only in that I used to walk down the hallway, pop into a colleague's cubicle, and run an idea past him. Or several of us spontaneously gathered in a communal area with a whiteboard and developed strategies for implementing an idea. To make up for such collaboration and to be around a supportive professional community, I joined a shared office plan and dedicate my Fridays to spending time there. I also schedule 1-on-1 time with trusted colleagues for lunch and masterminding. I hold space for my own clients – and potential clients – for such collaboration and learning by scheduling Idea Labs and forming Idea Success Teams. (Contact me about scheduling something for you!)

March is International Ideas Month. Check out Chase's Calendar of Events online or at your local library (yes…it's an actual reference book at the library, too) if you don't believe me. I ought to know, however, because I created the month! Everyone has ideas. For some, the challenge is too many. We need to be encouraged & motivated; to build skills; to communicate our ideas for consideration; to be in action and accountable to implement them. This month is dedicated to our ideas – large, small, great, forgettable, past, current and ideas yet to come. Without constant new ideas, progress and people stagnate. Make an IMPACT(c) with your ideas!

DOWNLOAD the brochure for International Ideas Month HERE. Try the "Make a Perspective Pyramid(c)" activity on the inside of the card to look at your ideas from different perspectives. Make time with someone in your support community to work with the Perspective Pyramid(c). You'll be pleasantly surprised at the ways in which the power of community helps you see your ideas in ways you might not expect. Employ the power of community to help you position your ideas for profit.

A Time for Ideas

A Time for Ideas

(Altered from "A Time for Everything", a poem from the Bible – New International Version, Ecclesiastes:3)

I altered this poem so that the words apply to ideas regardless of religious or spiritual beliefs. Simply the source of the poem represents a specific belief.

There is a time for everything, and a season for every [idea]:

A time to scatter idea details and a time to gather them,

A time to embrace new ideas and a time to refrain from adding more,

A time to search for ways to make your ideas work, and a time to give up and move on to a different idea,

A time to keep moving and persevere, and a time to throw away further efforts along your chosen path and find a new one,

A time to tear down and analyze, and a time to mend or reconstruct your strategy,

A time to be silent until you've protected your idea, and a time to speak up and share your idea with a community of collaborators.

While there's a time for everything, when you have ideas to implement and find you "have no time" to work on them, MAKE TIME. Easier said than done? Not if implementing your idea is a priority for you. Here are three ways to "make more time" so you can be in action with your ideas.

1. Identify your "time takers". Take a pad of note sheets with sticky backs, or 3"x5" index cards, and write down everything that occupies your time in a given day (or week, or overall). Also write down the ideas you want to implement. Note one item per note sheet or index card. Spread your notes/cards out on a table.

2. Prioritize everything. Integrate your ideas with your current commitments by prioritizing everything. Physically rearrange the notes/cards on your table so that your highest-priority items are farthest to the left (if your language is a left-to-right-reading language; vice-versa if the reverse) and those of lower priority in your life descend to the right.

3. Set an intention to focus and act on your top five…now. Make sure that at least one of your ideas is in your top five priorities for "now". When you set an intention you set your mind and make a commitment to yourself to do, be, or feel what you intend to do, be, or feel. Check out my "January Mindset: 'New Year, New You' is Bulls**t!" webinar for an in-depth exploration of setting intentions. (Become an Idea Success Community member to access the webinar complimentary.)

Plan your days, weeks, and so on with the tasks and actions that move you forward with your top five. Repeat this process at regular intervals so that you continue to focus and act on your ever-changing top five.

Idea Discovery: Calendar-365.com

Make your IMPACT(c) … one idea at a time!
Here's my Idea Discovery for today to help you do just that.

Here's a resource for planning your idea implementation strategy. I am planning my strategy for program ideas for the year (and beyond). In the middle of setting dates for strategy sessions, webinars, coaching milestones, and other aspects of my business services (these are not-disguised-at-all hints for ways I can help you with your ideas, by the way), I needed to find out which weeks had national (USA) holidays fall within them. I flipped to a new web window, searched for holidays, and of the many search results I received, this one was the best (my opinion)! Check out the available print-ready calendars as well as the future year ones.

http://www.calendar-365.com/2013-calendar.html

Your idea strategies will hopefully take you into next year, and the years beyond. It's good to know when your clients and customers will focus on special dates as you implement your strategies.

My goal is to serve you with resources and strategies that help you clarify, organize, and implement your ideas.
Stay connected with me for more Idea Discoveries.
IdeaSuccessNetwork.com
Sylvia Henderson, Your Idea Coach
Author: "Hey, That's MY Idea! How to Communicate and Get Recognized for What You Know and Think"

Idea Discovery: Article – 17 New Ideas That Are Actually Worth Millions

Make your IMPACT(c) … one idea at a time!
Here's my Idea Discovery for today to help you do just that.

I read this online article recently at Business Insider about a new online program called Kickstarter. Kickstarter is a site where entrepreneurs, inventors, artists, etc can post their ideas and raise money to FUND their idea. An interesting concept. Once I help you get your ideas OUT OF YOUR HEAD, you might want to check this out!

Click here to read the article

Visit Kickstarter @ http://www.kickstarter.com/

Idea Discovery: Article – Harvey Mackay: Creativity: How to get ideas flowing

Make your IMPACT(c) … one idea at a time!
Here's my Idea Discovery for today to help you do just that.

Read this article from Harvey McKay regarding how to get ideas flowing. It certainly aligns with my IMPACT process. I really enjoyed reading it and I hope you will too!

http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20121230/COLUMN/121229891

What’s the Big Idea?

Tips for Organizing Your Thoughts and Communicating Your Concepts

How many times have you come up with a great idea only to receive a lukewarm response – or worse, no reaction at all?

We all want to communicate our ideas in a way that generates positive feedback, encourages others to join our cause, or helps us further our personal or professional agendas.

The way to do it successfully is through organization and planning. Planning causes us to put intention into our ideas, allowing us to purposefully follow a defined process to take our ideas to IMPACT©. Organization creates structure. Structure helps our audiences—the people to whom we must communicate our ideas—to grasp our concepts, understand the flow of our thinking, and buy-in to the actions we present to them.

To get started, write down all of the details of your idea – big and small – on note cards. These are the details that make up your big idea. Then create structure by organizing the details by using one or more of these proven organizational methods:

• Deductive – First, put down your central idea. Next, put down the most compelling reasons for the idea, and follow with the points that will convince your audience of each major premise.

• Inductive – Cluster your details into groups that work together, and see how they form a structure that supports your overall idea.

• Problem-Solution – Organize your thoughts according to your response to the following questions:

Does your anticipated audience perceive that there is a problem, and do they perceive the problem in the same way and to the same degree that you perceive it?
Do you want to invite your audience to discover and evaluate their own solutions? Or, do you prescribe a recommendation as part of your presentation? Are there competing solutions needing evaluation?

• Whole-Part-Whole (Macro-micro-Macro) – Present the big picture. Then identify which details help summarize the separate parts. And finally, direct attention back to the big picture.

• Chronological Order – Use the details of the present to explain your idea and implementation, or use the future to highlight outcomes, benefits and long-term impacts of your idea. Follow a time line that puts each point you identify into perspective chronologically.

• Cause-Effect – First, organize your thoughts by cause and effect; then consider the value of the counterintuitive vantage point.

• Logistical – Start from a fixed point that makes sense to you and those to whom you will present. If there is a controlling or limiting factor that inhibits your idea, consider making this the starting point. Then follow an order that you can physically take your idea through from point to point.

• Before and After – Determine the “before” situation, then present the “after” condition based on your idea.

• Simple to Complex – Organize your details from easy to difficult, moving in a pattern that is better understood by your audience. This also helps you to see any missed steps.

For any of these organizational structures, when you have note cards (idea details) that do not fit within the structure you choose to present to one audience, set them aside rather than discard them. You may need them for a different organizational structure in order to present to a different audience. They may also be more appropriate to use for a different idea you are sure to have.

The next time you have a big idea with a lot of details, take the time to organize your thoughts in a way that will communicate well with your audience. If your profession or area of interest has adopted a different system of review or hypothesis testing than was presented here, it may be best to maintain that familiar pattern. Consider the benefits of using the organizational structure that best helps your idea shine!

Idea Discovery: Blog – How to Find New Business Ideas in Everyday Life

Make your IMPACT(c) … one idea at a time!
Here's my Idea Discovery for today to help you do just that.

Looking for new business ideas to implement? Sometimes they are right in front of you. Take a look at this article by Nadia Goodman from Entrepreneur.com for a few tips on how looking at things from a different perspective in everyday life can give you just the jump start you need to come up with a novel idea!

http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog/225348

It Will Never Work!

"It will never work."

That's what Nick Swinmurn heard about selling women's shoes exclusively online.

He silently founded Zappos.com and sold it to Amazon.com years later for$1.2billion.

"It will never work. There's no money in children's books."

That's what J.K. Rowling heard when she floated her idea to write and publish a series of children's books-thick books, no less-about wizardry and dark magic.

Can you say "Harry Potter"?

"It will never work. Guitar groups are on the way out."

That's what a shaggy-haired, guitar-based singing group from Great Britain heard when they asked about recording and touring with their music around the world.

Anyone heard a Beatles song or remix lately?

Have you shared an idea with your family, friends, or colleagues and heard the same, "It will never work" as admonition? I have.

I used to get discouraged and, at times, drop my idea before starting to work on it. Then one day I realized that people typically say these words to me because they are either jealous, or they care about me. Choosing to believe the later I decided that they say these words because they don't want me to be hurt by failure. This realization-or rationalization-changed my entire perspective on the statement. Rather than get angry, I now say, "Thank you for caring about my success". Then I move on to implement my ideas or examine more thoroughly whether my idea will work or not.

The next time you hear, "It will never work", consider the intent of the words. If you feel the words are spoken through a caring lens, say "Thank you for caring about my success". Even if the intention of the admonisher is less than altruistic, when you respond with the same "Thank you" response imagine how nicely you'll throw them off their game! Then move on to ensure you achieve the success your idea may garner.

Idea Discovery: Blog – 4 Ways to Organize New Ideas and Drive Innovation

Make your IMPACT(c) … one idea at a time!
Here's my Idea Discovery for today to help you do just that.

I read this blog by Nadia Goodman at Entrepreneur.com on how to organize new ideas within an organization. These suggestions align with my IMPACT process. I hope you enjoy it! Please share.

4 Ways to Organize New Ideas and Drive Innovation:

http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog/225133?cam=Dev&ctp=Carousel&cdt=13&cdn=225133