How to help escape ideas from prison

Scott Berkun is one of the most recognized project management consultants abroad.

Scott regularly publishes quite interesting articles on his blog and this is a translation of one of them.

Briefly about the article. Does it often occur to you that it would be nice to make such an improvement on a project? Or let's use scrum in our company! I think, to each of us, such thoughts come to mind. And how often, these ideas reach realization, or as Scott writes, “they escape” and if not often, how can this be achieved? Interesting? If yes, then go under the cat.

Every time you start thinking about your work as a prison, for you or for your ideas, it means only one thing - you are in big trouble. The prison is a place where it is difficult to escape, which is why they are called prisons (thanks to the cap! - approx. Transl.) .
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But the comparison is also very accurate for another reason - if you really want to escape, then first of all you need to thoroughly examine how everything works. You study the guards, the prison authorities and the prisoners who could help you, until you understand how they work better than they do. Only then do you see the possibility of a path for liberation. Each prison has its own black market, which is controlled by the very people who realized that they can rise above the system.

So, what stands out.

Are there already runaway ideas? Any research laboratory, in theory, has the task of communicating ideas to someone. This may be the vice president of another part of the company, or the government, or other organizations. And the first, most frequently asked question - is everything that you are talking about true? What are your last runaway ideas? Was this the end product? Any idea? Research work? Prototype? How did this come about? With what was this done? Such instructions should be followed and use the heads of those people who ask similar questions in solving their problems. If you do not have “escaped problems,” guys, you have very big problems, most likely you are actually working in a place that has become a prison for your ideas. If so, then why not go to work in a place that was more friendly to the ideas, even if there is less paid or the work itself is less prestigious?

At the end of each prison, real or metaphorical, there is a series of doors and people with keys that open these doors. What in your case will be the doors and keys? Perhaps the doors are known, and you already have the keys.

Who else is going to run? For a start, I advise you to watch the “Big Escape” (even if it will be the 24th preview).
The only way for these prisoners to escape from a Nazi prison was to involve many people working together on one common goal. Do you have friends who also want to save their ideas from prison? Combine your efforts. Share your work. Build collaborative plans using combined resources, thereby increasing the chances of success.

Do not expect to be rewarded. If you think that the system in which you are a link does not encourage good work, and you also want to work 15 hours, do your best, then why are you waiting for rewards and bonuses? Enough of the controversy. It is foolish to expect that after long and intense reflection on how to escape, you will rush to everyone with your idea and everyone around will be delighted with it. There is such a good phrase: “it’s just amazing what you can achieve if you don’t bother, who will claim all the merits for yourself”. Maybe in your company only ideas are considered the best ideas, about which your boss thinks that it was them who invented and outlined them. Or in order for the idea to pass you will have to sacrifice something, such as a salary increase or an annual bonus. In the history of the mass case, when the geniuses with their ideas for a long time remained unknown until the townsfolk did not find use for them. So, you may have to sacrifice the next six months or a year in order for the idea to reach the right ears, to take on the right shape, and only after that you can expect something.

Be wrong as often as possible. There are many different stamps that pop up when something doesn't work. “Make a mistake faster,” they like to talk alone, forgetting how it’s actually not fun to become a loser. In general, this of course has its own truth. Every time you come up with a new way of escape, you have the opportunity to learn something about your cell that you didn’t know before. Such an example, if you are at a meeting you offer a brilliant idea to your boss, but it is rejected, then there is such a chance that there will be one person in the hall who will come to you at the end and help you to correct everything. But at the same time, he would never come to you if your idea was not a failure.