Greg Jones’ reflection “Executing with urgency” this week at Faith & Leadership raises a hard question: Have you ever had a great idea, but it stayed just that -- an idea -- because you didn’t know how to make it happen? How many great ideas have you had -- a church conference, a community event, a book manuscript, a nonprofit start-up, a program for your denomination or school -- that died three minutes or three weeks or three months after they popped into your brain?
Scott Belsky (who Jones engages) calls this “idea plateau” and it’s a major hindrance to executing with urgency. Idea plateau is the phase between the creation and completion of your idea, the phase where your shiny, idealized, little brain-child turns into a nagging, sluggish, intractable brat who won’t grow up without a lot of work on your part. Belsky wrote a book and designed a whole conference around the problem -- 99% conference. Check out his talk from last year’s event about surviving idea plateau.
We also want to know how you have executed an idea with urgency. What are some of your strategies for surviving idea plateau?
Benjamin McNutt is the editor of Call & Response. You can follow him on Twitter at @benjaminmcnutt.
