How to Nurture Ideas

By Jennifer Goddard | April 9, 2008

BNET Australia Contributors

Aussie Rules

Biography

BNET Australia Contributors

BNET Australia Contributors
Phil Dobbie has a wealth of radio and business experience. In his BTalk Australia podcast, he provides a lively and insightful view on business issues.
Brian Haverty is editorial director for CBS Interactive Australia and is responsible for the company's BNET and ZDNet Australia sites.
Robert Gerrish is a coach, author and professional speaker and the founder of Flying Solo, an Australian online community for solo business owners.
Melissa Lourenco is the HR manager for CBS Interactive in Australia.
Chris Golis is the author of The Humm Handbook: Lifting Your Level of Emotional Intelligence. He runs seminars and workshops on EQ.
Suzi Dafnis is Community Director of the Australian Businesswomen's Network.
Yvonne Adele helps organisations build a culture of ideas by teaching people at all levels to access their untapped creative thinking skills.

The lifeblood of innovation is fresh perception and new ideas. How do we nurture new ideas into potential solutions?

As Brian Libby’s article explains, you need money, time, process, people and perseverance. I would like to add one more quality to the list — attitude.

Having an attitude of being open to new ideas and encouraging staff to keep looking for areas of opportunity is vital. Keeping your mind open to suggestions and having a process for them to be aired will encourage new thinking in your team.

When running applied creativity and innovation workshops one comment we often hear from participants is “It’s great learning how to generate ideas but they will be quashed as soon as we take it to the boss?” What is your attitude to new ideas?

An idea is almost never a solution. It is just an idea — so we need to support and nurture them and the people who create them.

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