Participating In The Execution Of An Idea

Terrence Olsen at Franklin Covey is responsible for their new PlanPlusOnline service offering, a really cool online version of their existing PlanPlus software. Terrence has always great new ideas, but recently a question in LinkedIn caught my attention:

If you have a great idea for your company’s business development, how can you share the idea and avoid being excluded from it’s implementation?

The topic seems to hit a chord with many people, because I saw more answers than usual. Funny enough, though, most of them were immediately giving tips how to own an idea, how to sneak in a presentation, just sharing enough to wet your bosses appetite, and how to make sure that you get credit for your idea. People must have had really bad experiences, because the question was clearly not geared towards ownership or commercialization, but involvement. Here is my answer to Terrence:

Hello Terrance,
The question is why a company should / could exclude you - maybe

It’s not one of your responsibilities or “you don’t get paid for it”, meaning that either someone else’s job is the implementation (you’re taking his job) or you would focus on a task that would vacant some of your other responsibilities (”why don’t you start doing the stuff you’re supposed to do?”) or you could be likely to drop some balls due to your extra involvement.

There are company political or policy reasons not to involve you.

You’re not seen as the most (cost) efficient person to do the implementation.

Your know-how and expertise is seen wasted in doing the implementation, as you’re so good at coming up with great ideas.

The implementation is perceived to require certain skill sets or resources that you do not seem to have.

…

As you can see, I used “seem”, “perceived”, “likely”, etc. That means that decisions (like any sale, internally as well as externally) are based on assumptions, perception, and expectations that need to be managed.

The other question is: Why do you want to be involved? Does it require a certain skill set that others don’t have? “They will screw it up”? It will not be followed through because they don’t see the big picture, the business value, or how to execute it? Your current job is not challenging you enough? You need this bizdev so you can do your job better, and hence want to have a say how to implement it? …

I think if you can answer these two questions soundly (and to your own satisfaction), noone would exclude you from anything. If you’re still excluded and find that confusing, then turn to Ayn Rand: “Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong.”

Clarification added 9 days ago:

Previous answers were focusing on how to monetize the idea, or how to claim credit for it, or how to overcome barriers against the idea itself - I thought the issue was *involvement*, not ownership. I also find it selfish to see an idea through just because it’s mine, even though others could execute it much better, or with better value for the company. But I guess I’ve always worked for companies less than 1,000 people and were able to realize my ideas elsewhere whenever I really strongly felt like it ;)

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