Want Your Ideas to Change the World? Please Don't Forget This!
Reflections on the simple yet difficult process of transforming our ideas into impact, especially the communal and collective dimension of ideas
Hello Dear,
Irrespective of how high or low or equanimous you are feeling at the moment, I wish, hope and pray that you and your dear and near ones, and all of us anywhere and everywhere, are able to respond to and make the best of yourself and your life situation. With the grit, resilience, creativity, open-mindedness, empathy, self-control and wisdom which we human beings are blessed with and are capable of nurturing and building in ourselves and in those around us. I firmly believe that:
Life presents us with only those difficulties which we are capable of, or which we can be capable of, dealing with. And moreover, it is not or #NotJust what happens in life, but how we respond to life, that matters and that should matter, right?
And if I may, at the cost of repetition, may I remind you of a point we said in the previous post:
Life is difficult; the only way to live, be and become, is to see our difficulties as blessings.
In other words, even as we count our blessings, we have to make our blessings count. And our blessings include #NotJust what pleases us and makes us happy, but also and especially those aspects which give us pain and suffering.
Of course, “easier said than done”, many would say. In a sense, absolutely yes. The test of the pudding is in the eating. Agreed. At the same time, I am thinking, especially in our hyper-communicative age, more and more of “the action”, when dissected and boiled down to its constitutive components, is nothing but or largely “words” or “saying”. Even otherwise, even if we keep aside the communicativeness of our age, I am thinking that some of the most beautiful actions we can do are nothing but expressions of sincere compassion, understanding, acknowledgement, appreciation and encouragement of the people in our lives. In other words, these are actions which consist of saying.
But alas! We often end up not saying these most beautiful words which we are capable of saying and which must be said. Why? Beause they demand us to depart from our established, routine, expected ways of behaviour, being and becoming; they take us out of our comfort zone, and they expose us to the unknown uncertainties of how others might respond. Or to put it most simply, it might just be nothing more than our inflated ego which stands in the way of the expression of the infinite beauty which we are capable of expressing, manifesting and bringing into the lives of the people who matter most in our lives. So, in this sense, this is anything but “easier said than done”, this is “easier done than said”. Yes, let us remember that more than material rewards, it is these spiritual and psychological gifts which uplift our spirit and acknowledge our identity, which even and especially the most disadvantaged people fundamentally crave for. So, let us try and not spare a kind and sincere word from the heart, where the same can and must be uttered. And remember, each one of us too badly needs this kindness from ourselves: yes, we should hold ourselves to high standards in every sphere of life, but at the same time, we should be ever mindful of our frailties and fallibilities, and hence be #NotJust strict, but simultaneously kind as well to ourselves.
Fine then, the above thoughts just flowed out as began writing, let us now come to the topic for today, which, come to think of it, flows from yesterday’s post.
If you happen to have read the above post and found it to be rather difficult reading, my sincere apologies. All I can assure you is that it was not intentionally made it to be inaccessible. 🙂As I said earlier, we will explore this phenomenon, what we can refer to as the political economy of simplicity and complexity, some time later.
Creating and Nurturing A Community of Idea Ambassadors
Ok so yesterday, we discussed some of the challenges which arise due to the process of sharing our ideas. If I try to summarize my own thoughts (at the same time, again, these are #NotJust my thoughts😊), ideas are powerful. Hence, sharing our ideas can make us powerful. And this power can corrupt.
The power accruing due to sharing of ideas can corrupt us, it can corrupt the ideas themselves, and wow, now when I think of it, it can corrupt even those who receive the ideas, and hence the entire ecosystem in which ideas are incubated, produced, nurtured, diffused, implemented and venerated or deliberated upon.
It now occurs to me that another problem with this phenomenon is that once the ecosystem thus becomes or even begins to become corrupted, we can even lose the crucial capacity - both individually and collectively - to discern among the bad, the ugly, the egregious, the good, the great and the most beautiful ideas. In other words, the power which arises due to sharing ideas can accrue to us even if our ideas are not worthy enough. Now, what makes something worthy and what does not; that is another fundamental question, which we have to park aside for now.
But hey, what I would like to share for today is something else. It is about one tiny, yet I believe important, aspect regarding our existential quest to transform our ideas into “reality”, to manifest our ideas, to get them implemented, to get them to make a “tangible” positive difference in people’s lives, or in short, to create positive impact.
What is this tiny yet important aspect? Put simply, we need each other. We need others to listen, understand and appreciate our ideas. #NotJust that. We need them to also get actively interested and question, mould, shape and refine our ideas. #NotJust that. We need others to get passionate, motivated and inspired by our ideas. #NotJust that. We need them to adopt our ideas as #NotJust our ideas. The ideas have to become their ideas too! Their “baby”, their children. Only then will “others” become “us”, and only then will “others” become champions of “our” ideas. Then, and only then, can we expect “our” ideas to make the transformational and life-changing impact which they deserve to make in the world, for today and for times to come.
And my reflections, discussions and experiences have cemented my belief that this is one small yet most crucial factor which often gets ignored, overlooked even and especially in numerous developmental projects and initiatives, of unimaginably monumental scale. The short shrift we give to this philosophy - either consiously or subconsciously or unconsciously - is reflected in the prevalence of top-down and non-participatory relationships and processes in the design and execution of various collective initiatives. For instance, we often see governments adopting an attitude of “doling out benefits” to citizens, while actually, it is in fact we citizens who are transferring or giving ourselves these benefits. After all, the state is an agent of its people, and not the owner of public resources, right? The state is its custodian who is called upon to act as a bridge to mediate between a people and itself!
However, by behaving as though it is the state which gives and disburses the public good, the state alienates itself from its people, it is like, the state is telling the people: Hey, I / we have got an idea for your good, why don’t you accept it, and maybe even thank and appreciate me for it? I would think that we need to reframe this - #NotJust in letter, but in spirit - as the people gifting the public good to themselves. Of course, I am not saying that this philosophy has not been and is not been articulated; the gap however lies in its transformation into action.
Of course, there is a host of literature on this, which we can immerse ourselves in. For now, I would recommend the 53-year-old classic Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Brazilian educator Paulo Friere, who held that “Education is Freedom”. I read the hard copy last year, but I am now delighted to discover that the soft copy version is available for free here.
Well, but this is not a problem which is confined to the design of schemes or ideas of governments or large corporates or other institutions. We face this in our daily lives, at home and at work, don’t we? For example, if we have to get our younger generation to learn something which they find difficult or adopt some particular behaviour such as spending less time on mobile phones, we need to get them on board, we need to get them to see the worth of the idea, we need to get them to own the idea. Don’t we? In a similar vein, at our workplaces or organizations, we need to get our colleagues and often a diverse set of stakeholders comprising both people within and outside our team, division or organization to go through the process of listening to us and finally, become inspired contributors to “our” idea, finally taking up the idea as their own too, and #NotJust ours. In effect, what we want is this.
We want to create a great army of ambassadors, champions and evangelists for the ideas we all believe in, a community of people who are inspired by the ideas and are committed to transform them into “reality”, to get them to make an impact in and on the world.
Such a community will invariably also be committed to growing the community itself, to enhance its richness in both quality and quantity. Thus the community in a sense becomes #NotJust about the ideas which formed the reason for its origin. It could thus spread its wings farther and higher, to ever-more-noble goals and missions.
Fine then, let me now share a short post I had written more than seven years ago, on the above dynamic of transforming ideas into impact.
[Beginning of a post I had written in March 2016, on the challenge of implementing ideas].
Innovation Tip: Love Them Enough to Let Them Go!
The Pain of Being an Idea Person
So you come up with a brilliant idea! You believe in it. You are confident that if taken forward, if implemented, it can bring positive change to your organization.
But alas! You need the support or sponsorship of someone else - maybe higher up in the hierarchy - to implement it. You propose it - passionately, eloquently, convincingly. You make a proposal you think they cannot refuse.
However, to your surprise, they dispose of your proposal, by throwing it into the intellectual dustbin, by burying it deep in the organizational cemetery of ideas.
You may discover later that someone else somewhere else implements your idea and brings significant transformation to perhaps not just their organization, but also to their industry.
And what you have done? You proposed, they disposed (of your idea, and you!).
If you have faced some version of this situation, you should listen to me! I have been facing this many times now. I have found that my success rate in coming up with new ideas is pretty good, but alas, my failure rate in implementing them too has also been almost equally high, despite having the support of great team-mates. In at least three cases, the proposals that did not see the light of day in my organization were implemented and launched even on a national scale by none less than...
Let me not boast unforgivably! Let us understand why this happens.
Other People's Children
Wish the world listened to Truman! Unfortunately, there are many out there who do not just want credit. They would even kill for it! Maybe not you, but your ideas, and in the process you!
There are others who may not care about getting the credit. But they may also not care about organizational improvement either. Or they may, but only in their own small sphere of operation. They don't have time or inclination to invest any attention or energy in your idea.
In both cases above, your idea is foreign to them. It is not their baby, and hence they either actively resent it or are indifferent to it.
Bring up your Babies!
Your ideas are your babies. Don't just give birth to them and abandon them. Don't just put them in pre-school - i.e., propose them - and hope they will grow and become successful on their own!
Care for them! Nurture them, fight for them, argue for them, give them what they need to grow up and realize their potential. Even if that means fighting honorably against some regressive elements of your organization.
Let Them Go!
Let them adopt your baby! Show them the beauty of your baby and how it is related to them, so that your baby becomes their baby. Show them how your idea is integral to something that they care deeply about. And let them garner a fair share or all of the credit for the idea. Let them feel it is their own. Not easy, but necessary in some cases.
This I think would significantly improve the success of your ideas and innovations - your creations, your children. Especially in an environment that is hostile to new ideas.
Postscript
Some studies show that people who originate lots of ideas are often lousy in executing them, in bringing them to completion. Yes, it is indeed very unfortunate if you have to fight out to make it happen. Organizations should foster new ideas and innovations, and make it easy for everyone to generate and execute them. Nevertheless, given the reality of most organizations and settings, we need to figure out various ways and techniques to make innovation happen. To let our babies succeed!
[End of the post I had written in March 2016, on the challenge of implementing ideas].
Before we close, let me leave you and me with this thought.
The biggest factor which might be standing in the way of our great ideas is most likely none other than we ourselves.
Yes, our ego, our pride, our attachment, our infinite urge for vain recognition and fame, for public attention. for getting all or most of the credit.
We need to lose ourelves, to find ourselves. And others, and our ideas. And thus, to make a difference in the world - both the world within and the world without.
There we go, let me stop here - on this incomplete and imperfect note, there being many more dimensions to explore.
Thank you for investing your time and your energy in reading my posts, please do let me know your feedback, your ideas and thoughts, either in the comments section, or at my email newdheep@gmail.com. I would also be happy to know if there are some specific topics or themes you would like us to explore in this #NotJust newsletter, or otherwise any questions you may have. Thank you your kind support and blessed presence! Best wishes! - Dheep.