Take Your Good Idea One Step Further
Whether you're an executive, manager, professional, or
entrepreneur, you need to think ahead. When you do it in a
formal sense, it's called it planning, when you do it informally
it's something like speculating.
Whether you're planning or speculating, the exercise represents
just the tip of the iceberg. For the plans or scenarios to
amount to something, they have to be implemented. In turn, that
usually involves other people.
Which takes us to the subject of communication: How do you
convert those ideas in your head into instructions or position
papers or even real plans?
I recommend writing, as in the sense of spending at least a few
minutes to put the ideas to paper. Several benefits come out of
the writing process:
First, you'll force yourself to clarify what you're doing and
what you want others to do. As long as an idea remains in our
heads, it's not made accountable, so to speak. That is, we don't
subject our ideas to rigorous scrutiny when they're just
thoughts.
But, when we write out an idea, the strengths and weaknesses
show up rather quickly; we force ourselves to look at the idea
more critically. When I wrote the publishing plan for Abbott's
Communication Letter, for example, the writing process uncovered
many key issues.
But, writing it down assumes even greater importance when we
need to communicate with others. Since most thoughts for the
future are inherently complex or uncertain, a written version of
your plan enables you to explain much more.
As you've probably noticed, you can't really deal with much
complexity verbally, unless you're making a speech or
presentation. In face-to-face communication, for example, a
train of thought often gets derailed by questions or
interjections by the other person.
A written plan also communicates to others a broader scope than
a verbal plan. After all, when you're writing, you can bring in
the past, cover the present, and look into the future. Or, you
can illustrate your points with more detail than you can in a
verbal report.
So, let's subject this article to the writing test, to see if
hangs together.
First, the article opened with the idea of looking or thinking
ahead, and I assumed -- note, I assumed -- this thinking implied
future action.
Second, you'll see the idea to take action, or to get others to
take action on our behalf, we need to be clear about the 'what'
and the 'why' before we start. Of course, not every action needs
this kind of launch; perhaps I should have said "For important
projects...."
Third, I suggested the way to get this clarity is to write it
out, but in retrospect, perhaps that simply reflects my bias
toward writing. Perhaps you manage well simply by thinking, and
don't need to write.
Fourth, I next listed a couple of benefits that flow from
writing, and looking back I see a that I had bigger projects in
mind when I wrote it. Smaller projects may not warrant the
writing process.
So, all in all, subjecting this article (at least the first part
of it) to the writing process did have the desired effect, and I
discovered a couple of assumptions that I wasn't conscious of
while writing. And, if I was writing a plan, especially a plan
for a big project, those would be worthwhile discoveries.
In summary, writing down your ideas not only helps you clarify
your plans or goals, but also helps you communicate what you
want others to do or think.