Mark C. Winters explains why visionaries contribute less creative input than they could, and offers three steps to fix it: define the line between ideation and execution, ask for ideas instead of direction, and share examples that make it safe for teams to approach them.
Hi everybody, it's Mark C. Winters. And today I'm really talking to both you visionaries and you integrators. And I want you to recognize that there are many visionaries out there that could probably be adding a lot more flavor, what I'm going to call flavor to their organization. So what do I mean by flavor? Flavor is really when a visionary, some of their unique abilities, something special that they're able to bring, they bring that to different parts of the organization from time to time and make it better. And it's really a combination of where the visionary is following their energy and it sort of matches up with the interests and priorities of the organization. Those kind of, kind of come together, you know, creative ideation in alignment with the vision. That's a great example of the type of thing a visionary can add some flavor with. So why doesn't this happen more in the organization? Why don't visionaries add more flavor just all the time? And there's a couple of reasons that come to mind that sort of get in the way of that. One is the visionary is just trying to be a good citizen and good member of the team and not tamper. They're trying not to do an end run down into the organization and start tampering. Another reason that will tend to slow this kind of contribution down is the integrator or maybe some of the mid level managers, they're sort of discouraging this because they don't want the visionary to come in and create a mess that then they've got to come in and clean up. And the other thing that will happen is just members of the broader organization, they're sort of afraid to communicate with the visionary. They're afraid to ask for help or input on something they're working on because they don't want to do an end run. They don't try and go around the integrator or another manager to go and even ask them for that type of contribution. So how do we get around that? How do we get more of this flavor in our organization? I'm going to give you a couple of simple things that you can do from first, it really starts with a same page meeting between the visionary and the integrator to get crystal clear on where that line is between adding flavor and creating a mess. And I want to give you a visual construct to kind of think about this. You know, anytime we've got some kind of a problem or an opportunity that we're working on, that we're trying to address or come up with ideas for you have a phase where it's really sort of divergent. We're trying to come up with all the different alternatives, all the different possibilities. This is a great place for visionaries to help and play. But once we get a lot of ideas out there, then we start to select, we start to apply some sort of selection criteria to narrow the list. Ultimately come down to the thing we're going to do, the solution that we're going to run with. So there's a line in here and it may be here, it may be somewhere else, it may be in a different place depending on your organization and your relationship between your visionary and your integrator. But ultimately up here is all good. It's adding flavor, it's ideation. But there's some place down here if the visionary steps too far into the execution piece of it, into giving direction, that that's when they kind of cross the line. That's when they start to create the mess that we want to avoid. So step one here, get really clear on where that line is. Second thing is I want you to encourage the teams to communicate with the visionary. Not seek direction, but to seek out the visionary's input. When we've got a situation where their unique ability, their unique creativity can really add some value and make it better. And then another idea you might want to do is as this begins to work and you have examples where the visionaries come in and sprinkled in some of their flavor into the project underway and it made it better and it went out and worked, begin to share those examples around the organization. It kind of creates that as a sort of a cultural norm that's okay and very effective and ultimately makes your organization even stronger and better. Alright, so three key things to wrap this one up. Number one, visionary integrator must be crystal clear on where that line is between adding flavor and making a mess. Okay? Number two, the visionary. When you're engaged in that type of an exercise, you really, really got to focus on ideation, not giving direction. And number three, we want to make it safe for the team to ask for that kind of input and the managers and the integrator all to be comfortable with that. It's going to add value, add flavor, and not just make a mess. Thanks for watching. Today at Rocket Fuel Ventures, we're all about creating the most powerful visionary integrator duos on the planet. And we do that by helping you crystallize what it means to be a visionary and an integrator. So you can understand if that concept can help you and and if you decide it can, to get connected with your complementary counterpart and then finally maximize that relationship to make it everything it can be to help you take your company to the next level. So if you want more rocket fuel, please check out our website@rocketfuelnow.com and that's where you can sign up for the weekly videos like this. Be sure you're getting these on a regular basis. You can also take the assessments so you can understand as a visionary or as an integrator with where your strengths lie and what the shape is of your two piece puzzles that can help you find that complementary counterpart. And finally, of course, read the book Rocket Fuel and keep those great reviews coming. 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