Who is responsible for an idea?
Image prompt: a lightbulb brainstorming, watercolour
💡 Is the person who comes up with an idea also responsible for execution?
Imagine you are in a well facilitated brainstorm session. Everyone generated a bunch of ideas that could address the well defined topic. After a few rounds of clustering, discussion and dot voting, one idea is selected to work on. It’s an idea you came up with.
A team member turns to you and says:
“Since it was your idea, how would you like to get started?”
😅 You don’t know what to reply, as you don’t have the capacity to take this forward…
Although well-intentioned, making the person who came up with an idea also responsible for the execution does not always lead to the best outcomes. The ideator might not have the skills, expertise, capacity or desire to work on it.
I’ve had people hold back on ideas out of fear they have to take it on as (another) project or because they didn’t how to execute it.
What can be done about this? Some suggestions:
🔹 Start with the end in mind. Where will this idea live? Which business area(s) might benefit from it’s implementation? Based on that, where should resources be allocated to work on this? Which senior executive should sponsor this initiative?
🔹 If your workshop participants are not expected to help with execution, communicate this. An example that helped me: “We are looking to generate as many ideas as possible around topic X. We really appreciate your input as subject matter expert on this topic. Team Y will take this forward. If you want to stay involved, options are A, B or C.”
🔹 If your workshop participants/the ideator is expected to be part of the execution, understand what they need to be successful. Additional training? A reprioritised workload? Ask them what they need and empower them.
In a corporate context, it often makes sense to seperate idea generation from execution responsibility. In smaller organisations or startups, the lines between ideation and execution are often blurred due to limited resources.
