The Secret Sauce Behind Great Ideas

Today I witnessed a great idea being born.

It was the kind of idea that got a whole team jazzed, spread goosebumps around the room and inspired me and others to say “today was an awesome day at work!” It began as a small nugget of an idea that evolved into a much bigger nugget of an idea... and then quickly snowballed directly towards a viable path that could actually be brought to life.

When I heard the proposal start to gain traction, my instinct told me that it was capable of moving real people to real action. The idea was thoughtful, exciting, and innovative. It’s precisely these types of ideas that are the crux behind all great marketing, and it was so inspiring to see it set in motion.

I won’t bore you with my geeky details of the idea itself and potentially spoil the launch down the road, but I will share my key takeaways on how this great idea came into the room. We know that there are a lot of great ideas all around us every day. The fact of the matter is, most ideas don’t see the light of day because they are not in the right environment to thrive.

Think of an idea as a seed. If you provide a seed the nourishment it needs, you will be able to see it sprout. If you deprive a seed of nourishment, well, you know how that story ends.

In a world of constant idea generation, every business should strive to have a sustaining foundation that invites ideas to prosper. I believe that to have that kind of environment your organization needs to instill trust, communication, guts, and endurance.

From my experience, great ideas will have what they need to thrive when the following can be said between the walls of your business:

I trust that the people in this room are open to my ideas, feelings, and opinions.

I know that this room will share helpful information and communicate authentically and honestly with one other.

I know the path to making this idea requires a certain level of guts and potential discomfort I’m not only willing but excited to invest in.

I am prepared to do whatever it takes for as long as it takes to make this idea a reality because I believe in it so much.

When you create an environment that invites this level of trust, communication, guts, and endurance you’re laying down the foundation for greatness. As a leader, I believe it’s our job to make sure we build environments where amazing ideas can be nourished, said out loud, and be given the opportunity to come to life.

I’ve had the honor of seeing many great ideas being born since I founded my agency in 2001, and one thing has become undeniable - great ideas are not “made” but “found” in the amazing minds sitting to the left and right of us. So I encourage you to look to your left, look to your right, and look around your environment. Do you have what you need to enable great ideas to thrive?

If you do, well, I can’t wait to see what you come up with.