Pen Your Ideas Into Interventions & Initiatives

It is, probably, a truism when it is expressed that ‘the largest things started by being small’. We were once kids, and we grew up. Some companies also progressed from good to great.

Ideas come and go, rapidly and prolonged. It would be opportune just to capture some of these down on paper (or a digital pad). You need not be so extreme to write every dream down on your notebook strategically placed on your bedside. Ideas morph into reality through a series of steps, sometimes serial and other times, sideways and sidestepped. By visualizing these ideas into words or pictures, you gain a better sense of what these latent ideas may become. Let these ideas come to be!

When you review your chicken scratches from years ago, you may rejuvenate a few initiatives: a business plan, a dream trip, creating a new connection, re-establishing existing relationships, or presenting a proposal. Before we can mark out our existence or territory, we will need to make our mark on a page. Motivational speaker, Anthony Robbins wrote his life-plan on the back of a map. The Virgin logo was drafted as a signature on a paper-napkin. The all-in-one, self-contained, beer-brewing unit by WillliamsWarns was thought and talked through in many conversions. How do you brew commercial quality beers within your own home? Put a master-brewer and a few engineer partners together and realize your diagrams and blueprints.

Leadership Lessons: Start small. Build it up from them. Write your ideas down for copyright reasons, and for your own recognition.

Making Your Entry

Drawing up initiatives is about taking the first steps. Every business or social process involves an entry strategy. How do you join? How will you get in? How will you get close to people of influence? You may not be able to entertain the idea of new connections until you enter into a relationship, and formalize it.

The desire to be fit involves an entry strategy, with multiple tactics:

1)    Questioning the importance of your wanting to get fit (to look younger, be more attractive to your partner, to fit into your wedding clothes, to feel more energetic)

2)    Joining a gym (paying the hefty joining fee, and monthly membership fees)

3)    Seeking and engaging a personal fitness coach

4)    Writing a list of races/activities to do (walk, run, biathlon, swim, triathlon, marathon)

5)    Signing up for these activities (e.g. Singapore Biathlon, Singapore Marathon, Yellow Ribbon Project Run, Army Half-Marathon, Gold Coast Marathon, half-Ironman)

6)    Showing up and completing your first workout

How do you gain entry into a club? Does it require a sponsor? Do you have the qualities the club is seeking? Do you possess the requisite professional qualifications in order to be considered for the public tender? How extensive is your track record? Some clubs make entry stringent, and value the exclusivity that comes with the commitment. ‘Membership by accomplishment’ may be the key to unlocking the door to possibilities. The timings for qualifying into the world’s oldest marathon – the Boston Marathon – makes it tough but a worthwhile challenge to the global ‘club’ of ‘finishers’. The international society for high-IQ individuals and geniuses, Mensa requires at least a 140-point score on their test. As the challenge becomes more physically demanding and risky, the smaller is the size of that club (e.g. Seven Summits finishers; those who climbed Mt. Everest, Four Desert Challenges).

In starting up a new business initiative, you will need to do the following:

1)    Register your business (under the correct category)

2)    Create a new business/corporate bank account

3)    Begin the process of seeking business (making pitches and presentations, drawing up proposals)

In change management, after all the consideration and preparation, you will have to take the plunge. Wade into the deep end, and assess your ability to stay afloat or swim. You are beyond the conceptualizing, and now into the exploration process.

Leadership Lessons: What are the entry requirements of your new business? How comfortable are you with ceremonies and social rituals? How do you earn inclusion into exclusive memberships?