Top Ideas and How to Execute Them

Which Top Ideas to Pitch?

The next stage is to consider how these ideas might be implemented by your organization. Look at the top ideas and say to yourself as the leader, “These are great ideas—how can we execute them?” The following questions will help you get to your answer:

Can we get our teams passionate about working on this idea?

Do we have the skills and abilities to do this? Can I get senior management on board with this?

Senior executives are show-and-tell. In other words, you need to supply information to support the good ideas, but you also have to show them that people will care on an emotional level. So before you select the final two or three ideas that you are going to fully develop and present, ask yourself whether this idea is one that you’re going to be able to create some sizzle with and get people excited about? Will you be able to create a vision that people are going to fall behind and want to be a part of?

These questions are about the potential difficulties of selling the idea internally. It’s important to know that I don’t ask all groups these questions. These questions can be very politically sensitive, and asking them to the wrong mix of people can provoke arguments and problems. You need to use your own judgment about whether asking these questions helps your group or will derail it.

You as the leader need to make the call as to which two or three top ideas should be pitched to senior management. Before doing so, the ideas need to be turned into a proposal. Before the workshop ends, assign teams to each idea, and set deadlines for when the pitch needs to be ready. Give the team clear guidelines on the structure of the pitch.