Making Ideas Useful

Innovations necessary in business, but it begins with an idea with some body's proposal. How can the man with a new idea also be responsible  in the organizational sense?At least two "ideas" may be helpful :
1. He must work with the existing situation. Since the executive is already awhile he shuns more new ideas to solve problems he did not even know existed. He needs to get things done, not just more advice about what things to do or how to do them. The "idea man" has to learn to accept this as a fact of life. He has to act accordingly.
2. When the creative man suggests an idea, the responsible procedure is to include at least some minimal indication of what it involves in terms of concrete activities, cost, risks, manpower, time, and perhaps even specific people who ought to carry it through. That is the essence of responsible behavior, because it make sit easier for the executive to evaluate the idea while anticipating and dealing with the problems that will invariably come quickly to his mind. That is the way creative thinking will more likely be converted into innovation.

It will be argued, of course that to saddle the creative individual with the responsibility of spelling out the details of implementation will curb or even throttle his unique talent. This may e true. But this could be salutary  both for him and for the company. Ideas are useless unless used. The proof of their value is their implementation. Until then they are in limbo. If the executive's job pressure mean that an idea seldom gets a good hearing unless it is responsibility presented, then the unthrottled and irresponsible creative man is useless to the company. If an insistence on some responsibility for implementation throttles him, he may produce fewer ideas, but their chances of getting a judicious hearing and therefore of being followed through are greatly improved. The company will benefit by trig the ideas, and the creative man will benefit by getting the satisfaction of knowing he is being listened to. He will not have be a malcontent any more.