Project Management 411

The Idea Man

by Bob Turek on October 30th, 2007

We’ve all had to deal with what I call the idea man. This is a person who has a lot of ideas but never gets anything done. Ideas are their forte, their passion, but they don’t seem to want to do anything about them. I’ve treated managing the idea man like a game amusing myself by trying to get them to do something. One expert told me to “just forget it, try to harness a few good ideas, put the rest in a ‘parking lot’, and gather a team together to implement them”. Others have advised me to document the ideas and work with the person to map out a practical way to implement them. Both agree that focus is the key especially when you deal with an executive. This simply means to gain agreement with the executive that too many ideas are a problem and to select 2 or 3 ideas to focus on before any others are dealt with. 

How have you dealt with the idea man?

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