How to Kickstart A Successful Idea Execution Program

In many organizations, the process of running ideas up the management chain often leads to “death by a thousand cuts”. Let's understand this through an example.

Anna submits her idea to the company's suggestion box, but it is evaluated and rejected by the management board. Undeterred, she submits a new idea, but once again faces rejection without any clear explanation. This continuous cycle of rejection leads Anna to lose faith, yet she persists and submits a third idea.

Surprisingly, this time, her idea is accepted, and she is asked for a business case. Peter, who is part of the innovation department and is responsible for executing the idea, becomes overwhelmed with his workload, and Anna's idea gets lost in his backlog. Months later, when Anna inquires about the progress, Peter doesn't respond because there is nothing to report. This scenario is common in larger organizations, leaving employees like Anna frustrated and reluctant to submit ideas in the future.

Over time, we wonder… we do employees never come up with good ideas? Well… no wonder!

The problem lies in the traditional idea management approach, which involves top-down decision-making and assessing raw ideas as if they were finished products. Saying "no" to ideas is easier because it avoids taking responsibility. Even if an idea does get delegated, it often ends up with someone who doesn't have the time or willingness to work on it.

Additionally, this removes employees who are motivated to work on their ideas and learn new skills, from valuable upskilling opportunities. Consequently, the same people continue doing the same tasks, and no growth occurs within the organization. This frustrating and negative experience hinders innovation and idea submission.

To tackle this issue, you need to shift from traditional idea management, driven by top-down decisions, to idea execution at scale.

Idea Execution At Scale

First and foremost, we need to stop relying on "hippo’s" which stands for the "highest paid person's opinion” to pick ideas to work on. It’s impossible anyways for anyone to properly assess “ideas” upfront. When management evaluates ideas, this could turn into a beauty contest with a high opportunity cost, also triggering herd behaviour.

Data always beats opinions. You cannot pick winners without investing in projects to test ideas, and most will fail. The larger the return you expect, the more projects you need to invest small sums in. Rather than “death by a thousand cuts”, “win by a thousand tries”.

The Kickbox methodology emphasizes a shift from large investments in a few ideas to numerous smaller experiments. The core idea is to encourage testing and learning through a structured three-stage process: validating raw ideas in bulk, refining a smaller percentage into prototypes, and finally implementing the top-performing ideas.

The approach empowers employees to be CEO’s of their own ideas, aiming to democratize innovation. By allowing more people to participate and validate their ideas early, the risks associated with large investments in uncertain projects are reduced. It's about making innovation more predictable and statistically grounded rather than relying solely on opinions or gut feelings. The process helps to identify viable concepts, reducing the risk of overlooking potentially better ideas and optimizing resource allocation for innovation.