Idea a day, part 7: Ode to Godin
My idea today was going to be if you ever have the idea of doing something for seven straight days, map it out before you make a public commitment!
Ok, not really, but if it's not obvious to everyone, I've just been winging this one day at a time.
My seventh idea is this: find an innovation muse. For me, it's Seth Godin. He's the reason you're reading this blog right now — or at least the reason why you're reading me on this blog right now. About three years ago, he came out with a book called Free Prize Inside. Ask most folks, and they'll say Purple Cow, or maybe Ideavirus, is his seminal work. I can't argue with them, except that for me, Free Prize Inside is the most important. I interviewed Godin and wrote an article about it for Executive Update.
It's a book about how to be about a champion. Not how to win a contest, but how to be a champion of ideas. He says we don't lack good ideas, we lack the willpower to get them done, that organizations are actually organized in a way that stifles ideas and idea implementation. Because of that book, I pushed through the idea of a conference blog for the Minneapolis ASAE annual meeting. The resources I needed were three or four volunteers to blog with me, about $5,000 (it turns out, I'd plan it without a big chunk of that if I could go back in time), and someone with tech smarts to help me get it up and running. A big challenge at the time was simply explaining why I was talking about a strange word like "blog." Adding to the challenge was this little thing called the merger. I was with GWSAE at the time (the Greater Washington SAE) and our members were about to vote on whether or not to merge with ASAE. It wasn't the easiest time to get anybody's attention for a pet project. I'm glad I persisted. (I'd link to that first blog, but as far as I can tell, it's been lost. You're not missing much. I remember it fondly, but that's more because it was accomplished than for its quality, which is probably best described as "a good start.")
So I close this seven-day little experiment, which, remember, is inspired by the upcoming Great Ideas Conference, with a twofer: (1) Find an idea muse, and (2) Read Free Prize Inside, and if you're serious about creating an idea culture, buy a copy for everyone on your staff.
| | Permalink |
Comments
Egad! You mean you did something on your own initiative, that wasn't part of anyone's plan, and you weren't sure that it would work or exactly how you would do it ahead of time? And you call yourself an association executive?!
Of course, it worked, it was cool, and I, personally liked it a lot. Thanks for doing it!
Posted by: Jamie Notter | January 18, 2007 5:43 AM
I agree with your assessment of this particular Godin book. I have used his Edgecraft process (or parts of it) in a few innovation workshops that I have done for association clients. This process helps us look at various types of innovations and apply them to totally new situations. In other words, find an innovation that has worked for someone else, see if it can be applied in a new way to solve a challenge facing your association, and take this new idea all the way to the edge...as far as your constituents will let you. This one chapter is worth the price of the book.
Posted by: Rick Johnston, CAE | January 22, 2007 4:13 PM
So, Rick, you're the other person who still references Free Prize Inside -- I was hoping to run into you some day.
Kidding aside, that book in particular spoke to me about the association experiences I have seen. I see an efficiency continuum where the federal government is on one end an upstart in Silicon Valley is the other. By design, associations fall closer to the government than the entreprenuer. Boards and volunteers and committees and consensus are all good things (well, maybe not consensus), but too often I've seen bureaucracy stifle ingenuity.
Free Prize sees massive bureaucracy throughout the continuum, and gives insights into how to bust through.
Posted by: Scott Briscoe | January 23, 2007 1:04 PM