For 2010, I’d like to challenge my fellow Audacious Ideas presenters with updating us with the progress (or not) towards their ideas’ implementation. We can all learn from what is actually working as well as what didn’t happen and why. I’m always intrigued by the brilliant ideas we often hear and how they either find traction in real life or are squashed by critics, bureaucracy, inertia, apathy, lack of funding and even open hostility.
So what say you? Will we see some of these great ideas in action this year? Did you have to modify the idea? What will/did it take? What needs to be overcome?
By the way—all great projects need great tools to make the work a little easier and more professional.
Let’s also post some of the best resources we can muster.
To start us off, I’m reading a pre-release copy of a wonderfully simple yet powerful book by the Heath bothers, Chip and Dan, who wrote Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Fail fame.
The new book is called Switch: How to change things when change is hard due out in February, 2010. Both are very relevant books for our change-making tool chest!
Two more references for our work—Robin Hood Marketing: Stealing Corporate Savvy to Sell Just Causes by Katya Andresen and no doubt you know about Malcom Gladwell’s Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. Grab a copy or two and let’s just see what we can make happen!
Postscript—I need to walk the talk: my audacious idea, introducing Ciclovia to Baltimore, is finally coming to some fruition. Roland Park held our first Sunday Streets along Roland Avenue in October on a beautiful fall day and did a great job with it! Now the City Council is considering a formal resolution, to be called “B’More Streets for People.” A portion of an anti-obesity grant to the Center for Disease Control may help fund the first two years. Some lessons learned can be seen from Mike McQuestion’s great post event report.
The idea found immediate support among all city departments and leaders, but was stymied by the recession and department funding cuts. We may have found a more sustainable way to fund it using volunteers every Sunday.
I would like to add to everyone’s reading list the following:
Top on my list (and every other bestseller list) is Superfreakonomics by Levitt and Dubner. Every development person should read the chapter on altruism to understand why people really give.
What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell has a section titled “What Do Job Interviews Really Tell Us?” which will make for some interesting reading for your Human Resources Manager.
I love the book Nudge by Thaler and Sustein. As the title suggests, there are many creative ways we can nudge folks into better behavior.
Influencer by Patterson et al explains how disease has been eradicated, children’s diets improved, and recidivism of ex-offenders reduced. The lessons learned can be applied to many of the problems our organizations are trying to solve.
Add to this list Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt, How We Decide by Lehrer, and Mindless Eating by Dave Wansink,