Nobody does it just to do it anymore, everything’s just a vehicle

The difference between a good idea and a great idea is the overwhelming sense of fertility and momentum and electricity that catalyzes inside of us when we have it.

If this new thing we want to do doesn’t immediately make us think of five other exhilarating things that we want to do as a result, then it’s probably a good idea, but not a great one.

But if this new thing inspires us to ask the leverage question, okay, now that we have this, what else does this make possible? that’s a good sign.

Years ago, we launched an innovation lab at our startup. The goal was to foster an experimental attitude within the company, promote futuristic thinking and to give team members a chance to compete for some cool prizes.

But the executive team was concerned that all employees might not know the difference between a good idea and a great one. And so, we created a filter. Every submission required a detailed answer to the following question:

How is this a truly innovative idea that moves the whole company to the next level, and not merely an interesting improvement that helps one department?

For example, one employee suggested that because we had so many attractive men and women at our company, we should create an annual swimsuit calendar. Not exactly innovative. It was a different kind of fertility than we were hoping for. But good thinking nonetheless.

On the other hand, one of our developers wrote an algorithm to help our customer service teams process claims twice as fast, which dramatically increased our monthly number of successful tickets. That was a great idea. Because it allowed our company to up the ante. Her few dozen lines of code gave hundreds of people this new wave of energy that carried us forward into the future.

The point is, all great ideas assert themselves but their own invisible momentum, like a tide. It’s a mysterious force that we may never fully understand.

Reminding us that everything we do should leave to something else we do.

Are you making an interesting improvement, or a truly innovative idea that moves you to the next level?