Ideas Into Action: 5 Steps to Success

I am passionate about helping individuals, teams, and enterprises work efficiently together to turn good ideas into great outcomes. In support of this, I came up with a simple model that I share with each new Smartsheet team member during their onboarding process. Over the past 18 months, I have found that those who run this playbook find themselves in a better spot at the company. Their ideas and recommendations are heard. They are often asked to lead or assist in the implementation of their recommendation — something in which they can take pride. These ambitious team members are usually rated highly among their peers, receive recognition from customers, and get promoted quickly. They are impact players.

These steps can be applied in any work culture and help get your ideas heard and executed — and simultaneously build you up as a key player on your team:

Step 1: Observe

Curiosity is an enabling trait. Be constantly aware of your surroundings and on the lookout for things that can be improved. What can you or your enterprise do better? In what ways can the experiences of your customers, shareholders, stakeholders, or employees be improved? What do they need, or what aren’t they getting? Record what you see and hear, but don’t get too caught up in trying find solutions at first. That comes later.

Step 2: Ideate

After you’ve taken stock, distill your observations into ideas. Which processes are dependent on other processes? Why is a project structured the way it is — is it because that’s how it’s usually done, or is it really the most effective approach? What obstacles are standing in the way of efficiency and success? Take a hard look at your goals in the situation as well: are your goals realistic? Are they actionable? At this point in the game, it’s less about doing and more about surfacing. Don’t worry too much about the significance of each idea. You won’t act on all of them, so develop a good repository from which to choose.

Too many people give themselves gold stars for getting to this step — and frankly, considering how rare it is to be a truly curious and creative person, it may be justified. However, to actually have impact and be recognized as an agent of change, the next three steps are of the utmost importance.

Step 3: Research

Ideas gain steam from supporting evidence. Evidence can come through rigorous A/B testing, reviewing what others have observed, or even anecdotes from speaking with customers. By developing an informed foundation on which your ideas can stand, your confidence — and the confidence of those with whom you share your ideas — is elevated. Ideas that lack research are more prone to be viewed as radical or impractical (and an engaging story of why your idea came about does not qualify as research). Those ideas usually won’t make it down the home stretch.

Step 4: Recommend

Regardless of how amazing you think your idea is or the extent to which you have researched, refined, and reviewed its merits, you need to take action for it to take flight. Very often, high impact ideas require the support of others — especially if your idea demands financial or team resources. The recommendation step is nearly as important as the execution step. It is your opportunity to state your case, get people on board, and build momentum. Remember, no one will know what you have done in the previous three steps to arrive at this recommendation. Unless you share the idea’s journey, you run the risk of your recommendation, and the idea behind it, flying in from the proverbial left field. Two tactics I often use to gain buy-in are:

Share many. Recommend one. Suggesting to pursue one of many ideas you’ve shared conveys forethought and intent. It shows that you have been selective, stacked ranking, and chosen ideas you believe have the highest merit. People respond better to those who are prepared and exhibit critical thinking.
Present your idea — literally. If you believe in your recommendation, don’t relegate it to a hallway conversation or a quick comment to your manager. Invest in how you enroll others. Put together a succinct Google Preso or Powerpoint and make your point visually and with conviction. When people see that you have invested in the presentation of your idea, they tend to listen more intently.

Step 5: Execute

You’ve laid the groundwork and gotten the team on board. Next, and most importantly, you must deliver. Nothing counts if you can’t deliver the goods. Using the guidelines from your recommendation, create action items and make sure everyone knows their assignment. Apply clear pressure by making these action items known to the entire team, and create a Smartsheet to track the progress on these items as they move forward. Bring the process full-circle by applying the skill of observation to this step as well — but be prepared to adjust course based on what you experience during delivery.

As you can see from the final step, this five-step process is a cycle — and one that can expand exponentially as your goals become larger and more expansive. Success is not a static experience; it’s a dynamic process of curiosity, creativity, and execution, continuously building upon itself. If you ever realize that you or your team is stuck in a rut, take that as a challenge and ask yourself what you observed today. Then, ask what you’re going to do about it.

Originally published at www.smartsheet.com on November 24, 2015.