Growing a Great Idea is a Team Effort

We know that a great idea is a process, but it’s also crucial that you involve the right people in that process. Conversations provide the soil and sunlight an idea needs to grow, to reach its potential.

“Stakeholders” is such a bloodless term, and “people with skin in the game” just sounds dated and weird. Nevertheless, your idea needs to be discussed with the people who will be helping to make it happen.

A healthy idea is the result of healthy, balanced development; free from faulty assumptions. That means bringing in outside (and sometimes contradictory) viewpoints.

If you’re the Rolling Stones, you invite people like Gram Parsons and William S. Burroughs to your rented French mansion when you’re recording Exile on Main Street. (You just might end up with one of the most beloved albums of all time.)

If you’re building a skateboard, you’re gonna need to talk to those trespassing skate-punks. If you’re a trespassing skate-punk, you’ll need to talk to a skateboard craftsperson in order to get that new deck shape out of your head and under your feet… or your skin will not be in the game, but rather scraped off onto the pool. Nobody wins in that scenario, so get those lines of communication open.

Next, we’ll look at where these ideation-conversations take place.