Your ideas are lousy (for now)

In an article widely shared on social networks, Anadi Sahoo tells the following anecdote: during a training session, the speaker asks the participants a question: “How many of you agree that to possess knowledge is to possess power? ”. Of course, everyone seems to agree. Intervener's response: “wrong. Knowledge is not power. Only applied knowledge constitutes true power.” Sahoo's conclusion: no matter what we learn, theoretical knowledge is useless when it is not validated (or invalidated) by the confrontation with the field. That is the whole meaning of the experience.

When it comes to creativity and innovation, it's exactly the same way: an idea, no matter how good, is worthless A prima facie. At least not before being confronted with the reality on the ground. It is also the meaning of” Ideas Are Shit, Execution is the Game ” [ideas are worthless. The only thing that counts is the move to action] Enunciated by the now famous serial entrepreneur and Silicon Valley guru Gary V (a.k.a. Gary Vaynerchuk). In terms of innovation, however, it still happens that the power of attraction of an idea is such that we sometimes forget its reality. The history of industrial flops is full of examples where the end consumer is completely absent from the discussions (Google Glass, Bic fragrances, etc.), the “ideators” being attracted to the light of their idea like butterflies on a lantern. The same is true in the media world, where reflection on the interests of the reader and the evolution of uses has long been absent from editorial meetings (cf. New York Times strategy report published at the beginning of the year).

“Ideas are shit. Execution is the game” - Gary V

Is experience an undervalued asset? In his work, the psychologist Mathieu Cassotti - with which I had the pleasure of intervening - shows nothing less. By looking at the “innovative” solutions proposed to a problem, his team discovered that children were no better innovators than “senior” engineers, on the contrary. A result that breaks the preconceived idea that outsiders, with new ideas (= children), would be better suppliers of ideas. According to Cassotti, this is certainly the case but unfortunately these new ideas are often ineffective... unlike those of engineers who have the merit — if not of being very “out of the box” — of working!

The next step? Sharing. This knowledge reinforced by experience is still not much if it is not shared. Who shares, receives, and therefore can improve their experience even more thanks to that of others, and above all do it much faster than by experimenting by themselves. For Sahoo, that's the real power: that of education.

Alexis Botaya, creativity and innovation speaker

• My creativity podcast upon Majelan
• My Challenge Create to Innovate on WelcomeOriginals

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