I love the name of today’s book — The Idea Hunter: How to Find the Best Ideas and Make them Happen by Andy Boynton and Bill Fischer. Idea hunting sounds like a fun adventure.
I love this description on Amazon for the Idea Hunter:
“Great ideas come to those who are in the habit of looking for great ideas all around them, all the time. Too often, people fall into the trap of thinking that the only worthwhile idea is a thoroughly original one. Idea Hunters know better. They understand that valuable ideas are already out there, waiting to be found – and not just in the usual places.”
Have you read?
Summary Technique for Producing Ideas
The MacGyver Secret by Lee David Zlotoff, a Summary
Summary: How to Get Ideas by Jack Foster
Where Does the Word Idea Come From?
Idea comes from the Greek word, idein, which means to see.
McKinsey Global Institute – Future of Women at Work: Transitions in the Age of Automation
McKinsey Global Institute released the report, The future of women at work: Transitions in the age of automation. Artificial intelligence technologies will have a devastating impact on women. Many will have to up-skill if they want to take home a paycheque.
“Between 40 million and 160 million women globally may need to transition between occupations by 2030, often into higher-skilled roles. To weather this disruption, women (and men) need to be skilled, mobile, and tech-savvy, but women face pervasive barriers on each, and will need targeted support to move forward in the world of work.”
Creativity and the ability to find idea after idea will help you to grow in your career. Using creativity to produce original work will likely protect you from layoffs, if you’re doing work that matters in the world. Doing work that others find invaluable.
Why It’s Important to Become an Idea Hunter
The workplace is changing. And it will continue to change. These days, you have to know a lot to produce products and services of value. And you have to know how to combine ideas, develop and apply them. Employees who master idea hunting will discover new opportunities to pivot into a new area. You’ll always be employable. Therefore, it’s important to create an idea-intensive environment to work in. One where you can thrive as an idea hunter.
How can you become an idea professional? How can you get ideas that make a difference? In an article that dissects what it takes to win a Nobel Prize, one element is to work on important problems. Becoming an idea hunter will take you a long way. You can rise out of poverty if you know how to leverage ideas.
The Idea Hunter: Know Your Gig?
What business are you in? What’s your gig? Your gig gives focus and direction to your learning and ideas hunting. Gigs have a future dimension. Here are some examples to get your creative juices flowing.
- Walt Disney’s gig was to create entertainment for the whole family.
- Henry Ford’s gig was to create a car for everyone.
A gig is not a line of work, or even a job title. When looking for ideas and new things to learn, think about your vision. Think about who you'd like to become and align your learning with that image of yourself. What is your personal brand? What is your tagline? Answer the following questions.
- What do you want to be?
- Who are you?
- What do you stand for?
- Does your work matter?
- Are you making a difference?
- What is your product
- Why and how is it special?
- How is it different from similar offerings?
- In what ways can you demonstrate its trustworthiness?
- How can you demonstrate I'm “with it”?
Questions to Determine Your Gig
- Do you get a kick out of it?
- Are you good at it?
- Does anyone want you to do it?
- What issues and concerns do you keep on returning to?
Things Worth Thinking About Gigs in Terms of Your Customers
- Will you make your customers and prospects lives easier?
- How will you make their projects more successful?
- Will they recognize that you’re doing this?
3 Questions to Determine What Your Gig Becomes
- What is it that constantly grabs your interest and sparks your curiosity?
- Think of the things you are good at. What do you want to be great at?
- Where’s the market for this?
Questions to Ask Yourself to Get Going with Your Gig
- What distinctive value do you bring to work?
- Think about it, what makes you unique?
- What special skills and perspectives do you bring to the task?
- How would you like to stand-out?
- What are two to four things you’re known for?
- In a year from now, what are one or two things you plan to be known for?
Operate within your circle of competence – what you’re good at. It’s a way for you to consider your strengths and weaknesses and how you might be able to stand-out. You can expand your circle of competence through learning and having a deep interest in what you want to do. Your gig helps you to filter idle chatter.
4 Principles of IDEA: The Idea Hunter
- Interested
- Diverse
- Exercise
- Agile
Interested:
Do you want to be interested or merely interesting. You cannot excel in an area unless you become interested in it. That interest will drive you to discover opportunities and problems to solve.
- What books and journals do you read?
- Who do you engage in conversation?
- Which YouTube and TED Talks do you watch?
- How about courses, when was the last time you took one?
Interest and curiosity leads to learning. You don’t have to be brilliant to come up with breakthrough ideas. Curiosity and an interest in learning new things go a long way. Seek out knowledge every day. Devote time to both thinking and learning.
Diversification:
Hunt for ideas from many sources. Do what your competitors are unlikely to do and don’t hang out where they do. Bring in different, but applicable thoughts, and look at different specialties. I write about reading across disciplines to see what others miss. That’s an element of diversification. The breadth of your sources will spawn innovation.
- Is your information sources diverse like what I mentioned in Interested?
- Does your interest span across multiple disciplines?
- Are you curious, looking for ideas to take your ‘gig’ further? Whatever your ‘gig’ may be.
- Who are the people in your ‘idea’ network?
Exercise Your Idea Muscle:
Ideas can be fleeting, so keep a notebook to capture them. Connect the ideas to your personal experiences and impressions. The highly-focused and purpose driven person, who has honed her observation skills will find the ideas. Build a personal observation platform. Write down what you observe. Ideas come to those who make it a habit to hunt for them.
- How do you exercise your idea muscle?
- Do you talk about your ideas as a way to refine them? This expands your observation platform beyond just you.
- Immerse yourself inside and outside your field.
- Do you write about your ideas on your blog as a way to clarify your thoughts and perhaps solicit feedback?
When you exercise your idea muscle, it leads to opportunities to spark both small and large innovation.
Agile:
“The goal of the Hunt is not necessarily to get a great idea, all at once. The objective is to set an idea in motion, letting it stretch, ripen, morph, or otherwise develop in collision and combination with other ideas.”
Catch ideas, then combine them to see what others may miss. Where can you go, where your peers won’t go, so you can pick up ideas? One way is to read books off the beaten path, and not just bestsellers. Make space for ideas to percolate. Play with them, teasing out the ones with promise. Not all your ideas are worth acting on. Know when to kill ideas.
- How do you situate yourself to make your mind a fertile ground for ideas?
- Do you visit different places, read different books, commune with nature, as well as contemplate life?
- Is there a group of people you can discuss your ideas with to further refine and develop them?
Final Thoughts: The Idea Hunter
As you’d have noticed by now, the four principles overlap, supporting each other. And that’s what makes them so powerful. Take the time to practice hunting for ideas and practice using the idea hunter model. Read The Idea Hunter, and start practicing what you learn. So far, I’ve presented The MacGyver Secret
, How to Get Ideas
, A Technique for Producing Ideas
. Today you learn about The Idea Hunter
. As someone who has read all these books, I can say that they are not at odds with each other. The books complement each other.
Next Steps
Wondering what to do next, please do the following two things.
Or, if you're in a position, please do the following to support me. It would be helpful to me.
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Buy my book, Leadership Reading: Spilling the Tea on How Top Leaders Read
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Join the Art of Learning Membership Site
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Sign-up with four friends or team members workshop, Applied Knowledge is Power: Reading Strategically to Get Knowledge Faster
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