Ever wonder what happened to the unused ideas germinated on the way to finding the solution to your project? Where did they go? Did anyone save them? Because experience shows there could be gold in those ideas.
Keeping those unused ideas is the leader’s job. While a team is focused on narrowing down the number and scope of ideas in order to bring something specific to life, the leader needs to find ways to capture the discarded pieces left behind, the ideas that seemingly don’t apply. It’s the leader’s job because he’s the steward of the field of possibility from project beginning to end, says Mel Toomey, founder of the Center for Leadership Studies. Possibilities add up to innovation which in turn underpins sustained growth.
It was just such a pushed-aside idea on that field of possibility that led to six new patents and tens of millions of dollars in new revenue for the developer of an oral hygiene product. No kidding.
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