Got Ideas?

Do you love coming up with new ideas? Or do you find it difficult when someone comes to you wanting to share their latest and greatest? The Working Genius model as an incredible self-awareness tool based on the work process and therefore immediately applicable to organisational teams. If you’d like to find out if you have the Genius of Invention please get in touch, I would love to help you discover your Working Genius!

• Transcript

  Do you love coming up with ideas? Or do you find yourself frustrated because someone you know keeps coming up with ideas and you wish they’d stop?!

  I am spending a number of episodes running through the Working Genius model: It is a self-awareness model which helps you understand what brings you joy and energy in your work. Being a model that directly correlates to the work process, it helps us and our teams become more productive at work. 

  Now, if your friends and colleagues call you an ideas man. Or if you find that new ideas excite you, you may have the genius of invention.

  The Genius of Invention is about coming up with novel ideas and solutions to problems and address issues. Invention involves creativity and original thinking, often with little direction. People with this genius are confident and inspired by a problem that has no apparent solution, and they derive energy and joy from getting the opportunity to take a first crack at coming up with a new idea. The benefits of this genius are generally well-understood in society, and include anything related to innovation, novel thinking, and original problem-solving.

  These are the sorts of phrases that people with the Genius of Invention tend to think and say:

  “Hey, I’ve got an idea.”

  “What about this?”

  “Here’s something that might work for you.”

  “Please let me try to come up with a solution for that.”

  If you know a person with the Genius of Invention you might say:

  “Where does she come up with these ideas?”

  “He always has a new idea or solution, even if we don’t ask for one.”

  “She’s so creative. She’ll think of something new.”

  “He’s a genius.”

  Every genius has shadow sides. If you have the Genius of invention you need to watch out for the following. Make sure that you make it clear to people when you are simply ideating. As an inventor, you get excited by ideas for ideas sake. People without this genius may confuse you as saying, ‘I want you to implement this and this and this.’ I have spent time with a few teams who were practically burnt out because their inventor team leader would give them heaps of ideas without a discernment process and they tried to implement everything. This doesn’t end well. Secondly, you need to be aware that not all of your ideas will be great. If you have the genius of invention, make sure you give people the space to help you discern which ideas are good and which ones aren’t. 

  If you have the genius of invention, enjoy practicing your genius every day! Maybe you need a journal so you can spend time inventing. Get excited by your ideas and don’t fall into the trap of feeling any failure if you don’t follow through on every idea - the joy for you comes in the ideating. If you know someone who has the genius of invention, encourage them in their ideas, and understand that not all their ideas should be implemented, but instead help inventors to discern which ideas are great.