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.

£1.65bn is the cost of denying customer choice.

I imagine that Santander is as disappointed as RBS, that their plan to acquire 318 branches and 250,000 small business customers from UK’s state owned bank has collapsed due to a technology issue; A technology issue that most utilities addressed almost 20 years ago.


UK telcos started planning for number portability in the mid 1990’s as they knew they would never grow with out it. After lengthy consultation by UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, all telcos, including the fledgling start ups and mobile companies had to offer customer portability of their telephone numbers from 19th January 2000.

The deregulation of gas and electricity regulators delivered a similar protocol, enabling customers to switch easily between providers within the terms of their contracts.

While telecoms and utilities companies have come and gone, customer portability being enabler of success or failure, not the root cause. Businesses with the best service and value proposition thrive, regardless of the industry.

Yet the UK retail banking sector has closed its ears to consumer group’s calls for account number portability, and now the whole industry is paying the cost; £1.65bn in RBS case. Had RBS enabled account number portability, the challenge they are facing today in preparing to transfer customers would have already been solved.

This is the ROI case for customer experience and brand. This is the case for delivering the best you can for customers to deliver shareholder value.

So isn’t it time, the new banking regulators take up the mantle for customer choice? Even if it’s just to save the UK retail bank’s shareholders from themselves.

The meaning of communication is the response you get

Business to business marketing professionals are increasingly understanding the value of a content led marketing strategy. 

Charles Green, author of The Trusted Advisor says “Valuable content is the focus of all successful marketing today.”

Engaging current and potential customers through thoughtful and useful content is more powerful than above the line and direct mail. It can be delivered through channels that customers have opted into, removing its disruptive nature, and can much more effectively targeted.

I accept that writing a blog can seem like producing popcorn if are used to delivering more detailed white papers and magazine articles. I accept that a single blog can never give justice to a large and complex topic. I know that blogs are as transient as the paper we use to wrap fish and chips in.

However, I firmly believe the meaning of communication is the response you get, and one of the most effective ways to get an immediate response to a business idea is to publish it as a blog that will resonate with your customers.  

I am not for a moment advocating producing blogs for the sole purpose of provocation, but obtaining a response is a valuable outcome for blogging commercially.  Longer written pieces have their place, and sometimes anything less may seem vacuous. If you are writing to stand out and generate business, a series of regular blogs focused on the audience you want to engage with is powerful way to start. 

Blogs are low cost, fast to produce and an effective way to get some personality onto your business brand.

Don’t just take my word for it. Last week I attended a super seminar at The British library arranged by Kogan Page.

The highlight for me was two experienced and talented commercial content producers Sonja Jefferson and Sharon Tanton, who’s new book Valuable Content Marketing is much longer than this blog, and even more informed.

The social media formula for a successful investment management business

In my first blog for Visible Banking, freshly back from a productive week and a successful event in Australia- I share with investment management firms my formula for achieving success in social media.  Click here