Mar 29, 2010
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Planning is Key To Successful Innovation
Planning is a critical component to being a successful innovator.
It sounds counter-intuitive.
You might think that innovation is all about inspiration and the eureka moment. But its not. Its about executing. To paraphrase Seth Godin, real innovators ship. That is, real innovators get things done. And often. The more often you deliver something, the better you’ll become at delivering more in the future. Your ability to innovate and implement real change will increase.
The problem with relying on inspiration is that it is often fueled by emotion alone. Soon, those emotions fade. Or, they become harder to generate as problems arise. Then you get stuck.
If everything is on the fly, you are always late.
You can never execute and ship as fast as your ideas come. Rely on inspiration and you’ll get frustrated when things take longer than “now.”
You need to build project plans. You need to plan the next steps. That way you won’t get frustrated when things take longer than “now.” You’ll be able to keep moving forward even when you hit set-backs.
The plan will be in place. You’ll know where to pick up from and where you want to go.
You might have to modify it. Actually, you’ll most certainly have to modify it. But you’ll have a baseline to move forward on.
The plan doesn’t have to be elaborate. In fact, I would caution against getting too carried away. Many great ideas never became reality due to “paralysis from analysis or over-planning and under executing.
How much planning is enough?
You’ll learn over time as you see one plan be too constrictive or the other too loose, and therefore useless. Just be conscious of the plan and gauge its success at helping you deliver. That’s one of the advantages of having a planning. You have something to tweak and improve.
Often enough, whether you can get the idea done or is more a reflection of your plan, and not of your idea.
By consistently measuring the outcome of different plans and tweaking the plan over successive iterations, you’ll find the right plan. You’ll find the mix that allows you to innovate and ship your ideas.
Not every idea you ship will be a hit. But by shipping, you’ll at least be in the marketplace. You will be executing and delivering innovation. You will have the satisfaction and fulfillment of seeing your ideas through to their fruition.
This, in turn, will give you confidence to try the next idea. And the next. And soon, you will have a steady process to deliver innovation.
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