What to do with ideas when you step out of the shower.

When we think about innovation at work, we most often start with the idea generation process.

The best ideas come when we let our subconscious run free. I find this happens most when I’m running, driving on the motorway and when I’m showering. My wife often finds me, much to her annoyance, sitting on the bed dripping wet and scribbling notes.

Indeed I provided two more ideas on how to generate innovative ideas at work in a recent blog and touched on successful innovation being mainly about delivery. In this blog, I want to explore the value of evaluation stage of innovative ideas that comes after we have the idea and before we start on making them a reality.

As the great actor Rex Harrison puts it better than me "exhilaration is that feeling you get just after a great idea hits you, and just before you realise what is wrong with it."

Being critical of our own ideas is essential, but if we find ourselves continually ruling out our new thoughts, this can lead to creative paralysis. So how do we carryout a meaningful evaluation of ideas without preventing our ability to go on to and create more. Well, here is a great model I recently learned about that not only addresses this dichotomy, it can actually lead to more sustainable ideas.

Any list of the great innovators of the last 100 years includes Walt Disney. Walt Disney by any measure was an extraordinary creator. Not just artistically, but commercially too. He understood the value of his art and how to present it in a way that we could all enjoy it most and he could build a business from it.

Academic Robert Dilts analysed Disney’s approach and modelled a clear separation between his state as a dreamer, a critic and a realist, called the Walt Disney Pattern

After having your idea in the shower, you need to see the process as a storyboard and then step back into it in 3 different roles, or mind states.

Firstly as the realist - think very realistically and devise a specific plan to put your new idea effectively into action.  Secondly, become the critic. Find out if anything is missing or needed and turn the criticisms into questions for the dreamer to address.

Finally, step back into the idea as the dreamer (take another shower if this helps). Think creatively to come up with solutions, alternatives and additions to address the questions posed by the critic. Repeat as many times as required until you go all wrinkly, run out of water or have a blockbuster idea.