Align Expectations - The 4 bases of Ideation.

Unite On Objectives

It sounds overly simple but asking the right questions is more important to come up with solutions.

Robin S. Sharma quotes ‘One of the fastest ways to find the solution to an issue or challenge is to ask the right questions'.

By uniting the team on the key objective of the meeting and taking some time to prepare questions that you are wanting to find solutions to as the topics will drive engagement and help participants prepare.

At GetFocused we do not believe in creating exhaustive meeting agendas, that people rarely read. Instead, list up to 3 questions as topics, you are seeking advice to resolve. This provides an excellent framework for a purposeful and engaging meeting.

Sharing Ideas

Before asking your team members to present their ideas on how best to answer the proposed questions it is very important to clarify the ‘home run of expectation’ for the responses.

By clarifying these you aim to align expectations - helping avoid a mismatch that often leads to destructive conflict in teams.

There are 4 levels for the ‘home run of expectation’.

Base 1: Basic Idea

Base 2: Rough Concept

Base 3: Detailed Concept

Base 4: ‘The Home Run’ Market Ready

Base 1 - Basic Idea

For a Base 1 Idea, this is framing the idea/answer to the question as a top-line response. I call these ‘shower ideas’ as these answers come to you when you least expect them, eg in the shower, out riding your bike, or in the middle of the night. They are not thought through and are very much gut or intuition-driven. These ideas could be shared during a daily check-in and as a team leads, you need to decide whether you want to dedicate a team brainstorming session to elaborate on this idea further, taking around the bases or you might decide it is more appropriate for the instigator to do this work independently.

Base 2 - Rough Concept

To take an idea from base 1 to base 2…I think the best process is to present a 5W mind map.

• What is the issue, fact, idea etc?

• Where will it be implemented, where was the problem in the first place, where does it impact

• Who can manage this, who does it affect, who can benefit

• When did this challenge arise, when can we implant the solution

• Why is this a good idea, why did the problem arise?

By fleshing out the idea using this model you will begin to validate whether it has the legs to run to base 3.

A great tool to use to share these ideas is Miro.

Base 3 - Detailed Concept

It is at this stage of the journey when you think about the ‘How’ to implement the solution.

Once all team members have presented their rough concept we recommend using the impact effort matrix to evaluate each of them on Merit.

By doing so you begin to unpack the requirements and effort to execute the idea relating to the predicted impact.

Base 4 - Market Ready - The Home Run

Once the idea has been selected. You then move into the delegating phase - delegate what matters to those with the best capabilities to execute.

Potentially more planning and research may be required but essentially the primary focus of the team is to play their part to ensure the deadline is met and the idea answers the problem originally proposed.

GetFocused helps systemise this process. Please contact the GetFocused Team for more information on how we could help you align your team's expectations and focus on what matters.