Making Ideas Happen : Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality

by Belsky, Scott

• ISBN13: 9781591843122
• ISBN10: 159184312X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-04-15
• Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover

Summary

How the world's leading innovators push their ideas to fruition, time and time again. Edison famously said that genius is 1 percent inspiration, 99 percent perspiration. Ideas for new businesses, solutions to the world's problems, and artistic breakthroughs are common, but great execution is rare. According to Scott Belsky, the capacity to make ideas happen can be strengthened by anyone willing to build their organizational habits and harness the forces of community. That's why he founded Behance, a company that helps creative people and teams across industries develop these skills. Belsky has spent six years studying the habits of especially productive creative people and teams-the ones who make their ideas happen time and time again. After interviewing hundreds of successful creatives, he has compiled their most powerful-and often counterintuitive-practices, such as: •Generate ideas in moderation and act without conviction •Reduce all projects to just three primary components •Encourage fighting within your team •Seek competition and share ideas liberally In an increasingly flexible and entrepreneurial environment, creative minds have the opportunity (and responsibility) to solve and change industries-but they can only do that if they overcome the obstacles. While many of us obsess about discovering great new ideas, Belsky shows why it's better to develop the capacity to make ideas happen-a capacity that endures over time.

Author Biography

Scott Belsky is the founder and CEO of Behance, which operates the leading online platform for creative professionals, as well as the 99% Conference, a major annual symposium on execution in creative industries. Previously he helped grow the Pine Street Leadership Development Initiative at Goldman Sachs.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Making Ideas Happen	p. 1
Making This Book Happen	p. 4
Why Most Ideas Never Happen	p. 8
The Forces That Make Ideas Happen	p. 14
A Final Note as We Begin	p. 18
Organization And Execution	p. 21
The Competitive Advantage of Organization	p. 25
Your Approach to Organization and the Destiny of Your Ideas	p. 26
The Action Method: Work and Life with a Bias toward Action	p. 30
Reconsider How You Manage Projects	p. 32
Breaking Projects into Primary Elements	p. 34
The Importance of Action Steps	p. 37
Maintaining a Backburner	p. 43
References are Worth Storing, Not Revering	p. 45
Practicing the Action Method	p. 49
Capture and Make Time for Processing	p. 51
Prioritization: Managing Your Energy Across Life's Projects	p. 58
Keep an Eye on Your-Energy Line	p. 58
Reconciling Urgent vs. Important	p. 61
Darwinian Prioritization	p. 67
Execution: Always Moving the Ball Forward	p. 70
Act Without Conviction	p. 72
Kill Ideas Liberally	p. 75
Measure Meetings with Action	p. 78
The Biology and Psychology of Completion	p. 81
The Tao of the Follow-up	p. 84
Seek Constraints	p. 86
Have a Tempered Tolerance for Change	p. 89
Progress Begets Progress	p. 91
Visual Organization and Advertising Action to Yourself	p. 93
Mental Loyalty: Maintaining Attention and Resolve	p. 98
Rituals for Perspiration	p. 99
Reconsider Your Work Space	p. 102
Reduce Your Amount of "Insecurity Work"	p. 104
The Forces of Community	p. 107
Harnessing The Forces around You	p. 111
The Dreamers, the Doers, and the Incrementalists	p. 112
Seldom Is Anything Accomplished Alone	p. 116
Share Ideas Liberally	p. 120
Capitalize on Feedback	p. 124
Transparency Boosts Communal Forces	p. 128
Communal Forces Are Best Channeled in Circles	p. 131
Seek Competition	p. 135
Commit Yourself in Order to Commit Others	p. 138
Create Systems for Accountability	p. 139
The Pressure of the Spotlight	p. 140
The Power of the Network	p. 142
The Benefits of a Shared Work Space	p. 143
Seeking Stimulation from Serendipity	p. 145
Pushing Ideas Out to Your Community	p. 147
Overcome the Stigma of Self-Marketing	p. 148
Effective Self-Marketing Builds Respect	p. 151
Find Your Own Frequency, Then Tune in to Engage Others	p. 155
Ground Your Ideas Outside Your Community	p. 158
Recognize When You Are No Longer a Solo Show	p. 159
Leadership Capability	p. 163
The Rewards Overhaul	p. 167
Short-Circuiting the Rewards System	p. 168
The Motivational Reward of Play	p. 172
The Reward of Recognition	p. 175
The Chemistry of the Creative Team	p. 177
Engage Initiators in Your Creative Pursuits	p. 178
Cultivate Complementary Skill Sets	p. 179
Provide Flexibility for Productivity	p. 180
Foster an Immune System That Kills Ideas	p. 183
Fight Your Way to Breakthroughs	p. 184
Don't Become Burdened by Consensus	p. 186
Managing The Creative Team	p. 190
Share Ownership of Your Ideas	p. 191
Leaders Should Talk Last	p. 193
Judge and Be Judged Amidst Conflict	p. 194
Develop others through the Power of Appreciation	p. 195
Seek the Hot Spots	p. 199
Self-Leadership	p. 202
Find a Path to Self-Awareness	p. 203
Develop a Tolerance for Ambiguity	p. 204
Capture the Benefits of Failure	p. 206
Avoid the Trap of Visionary's Narcissism	p. 207
Combating Conventional Wisdom with Contrarianism	p. 209
Consider Yourself an Entrepreneur	p. 211
Be Willing to Be a Deviant	p. 213
Keep an Eye on the Backward Clock	p. 214
The Love Conundrum	p. 216
An Opportunity and a Responsibility	p. 219
Acknowledgments	p. 221
Tips for Practicing the Action Method	p. 225
The Purple Santa Experiment	p. 227
Overview of the Behance Network	p. 231
Index	p. 233
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