Idea Management is a formalized, structured routine for generating, capturing, organizing, evaluating, and implementing ideas that will drive innovation and your business forward.
Unlike other models, theories, or practices, it is incredibly simple, infinitely flexible and, if embedded well and tested thoroughly, hugely transformative. It’s one thing to casually ask your team what they think about things, but it’s quite another to make sure that this information is useful to you.
Plus, without a clear process, even the best ideas are likely to get lost. If you can reliably capture, refine, and apply feedback and suggestions from both inside and outside your company, you tap into a potentially infinite source of ideas that can turn into innovation.
There are few things as valuable, so it’s worth investing both time and money in getting your Idea Management flow right.
In practice, it refers to three elements required to cultivate excellent, impactful ideas: culture, system, and process.
Create a culture that values and actively encourages the contribution of feedback, suggestions, insights, and observations, no matter how seemingly small or inconsequential.
It is one thing to have a great idea. It is another to bring it to life. For innovation to thrive, you need an ecosystem that can transform an idea into something meaningful.
Develop a clear process that enables you to rationally and reasonably filter through these ideas, against your clearly defined business goals and priorities. Before we delve into how to bring these three elements together, you’re going to need buy in from your entire team. To help you start the conversation, let’s dig into a few reasons why Idea Management is a necessary and worthwhile investment for your company.