2. Where do great ideas come from?
• From talking to your kids
• From questioning authority
• Chance meeting with a stranger
• From sheer frustration
• From failure and trying something else
• For fear pure and simple
• From the seat of your pants
• …so its not always a creative process
3. Ideas can be born from differences
• Different perspectives
• Different approaches
• Different views on what’s right and what’s wrong
• Different levels of knowledge
• These differences create tension
• Harnessed properly this becomes creative tension,
misunderstanding and uncertainty
• Uncertainty has two siblings or outcomes - inertia and
ideas
4. Ideas without execution… worthless
• A great idea is useless unless it can be executed
AWFUL IDEA = -1
WEAK IDEA = 1
SO-SO IDEA = 5
GOOD IDEA = 10
GREAT IDEA = 15
BRILLIANT IDEA = 20
NO EXECUTION = $1
WEAK EXECUTION = $1000
SO-SO- EXECUTION = $10,000
GOOD EXECUTION = $100,000
GREAT EXECUTION = $1,000,000
BRILLIANT EXECUTION = $10,000,000
To make a business, you need to multiply the two.
The most brilliant idea, with no execution, is worth $20. The most brilliant idea takes great
execution to be worth $20,000,000.
5. Ten top tips for generating great ideas
• There’s no formula
• Don’t think too hard in a linear fashion - its inspiration not
perspiration
• Ask someone else to re-frame the problem and then express it in
their words
• Change your environment
• Ask a child for their perspective
• Try not to think about the issue your are trying to solve
• Don’t discard wild unworkable thoughts - give them to someone else
to sift through
• Don’t give yourself a deadline (this is ideation not execution)!
• Picture yourself explaining the problem to a room full of barristers
• See walking away as taking the problem to another level
