I just discovered a nice phrase from Jurgen Appelo. IDEA FARMERS.
When someone asks what is my contribution to the profession, the project, the problem, or the situation, I can usually come up with something in short order.
Either through:
- Direct hands on experience - having done it this year with my own efforts applied to the solution. This is a "touch labor" approach the solving the problem.
- A bit of research in the archive - having done it in the past 3 years. Again with a touch labor effort, but the gory details are starting to fade. But are artifacts remaining, reports, data, charts, etc. to show what was done, and what resulted that benefited the customer.
- A deeper search in the archive - having done in the past 5 years. The artifacts are there, but the details are starting to fade.
- Knowing how to do it from the principles - trained, certified, participated in the solution.
- Knowing someone that I know that has done it - the "golden Rolodex" of trusted source of help. This is a critical point in supplying the solution. Someone else provided the solution, but how they did it at the detail level may be different than I would do it. So absolute trust is needed to proceed.
- Knowing where to look - "Google" is our friend - look it up, read guidance, look for example.
- have a book on the shelf - read, study, connect the dots.
- pure intuition - it makes sense to do it this way.
The notion of a Thought Leader is bestowed not stated. So Idea Farmer is better. I tend to associate with Idea Farmers. When presented with a "situation," good Idea Farmers can come up with something quickly, test that idea against the reality of the situation, and get started toward the eventual solution with that guidance.
But there are of course issues with the Idea Farmer aprpoach.
- The ideas have to be credible - the result has to work in some way useful. The means any olde cocka-mamy idea won't work. The notion of Hey let's try this isn't going to produce credible results. There are many ideas otu there that "sound" good on paper, in a book, or at a seminar. That are in fact bad ideas.
Hey let's fill the cracks in the elevator door with a can of that sealant. OK sound good let's put 20 cans around the door. Opps, the sealant goes exothermic and catches fire.
- The ideas have to be actionable in ways useful for the problem at hand - having a idea that is a principle is nice for bar room conversation. Having an idea you can take out into the shop as we would say in the spacecraft business is needed.It has to be out to work to produce some kind of result that can be tested to determine if the idea is a good as we think it is.
Let's introduce agile development to our $200M ERP roll out project. Yep sounds good lots of people are saying this is the way the world is going. Hey anyone here ever done agile on a $200M ERP roll out before? Nope, well let's learn how to do this quickly because the big bosses think it's a good idea too.
- The ideas have to be provably correct to some level of fidelity - once there is some first level test that the idea might work, we need some way to prove it can be scaled to meet the actual solutuon demands.
The outcomes have to be know to some level of fidelity before we start committing other peoples more. Hey, why don't we switch from this application to this other really nice application I saw in a demo last week? What are to "show stoppers" in that application? Gee I didn't really hear any from the sales person when they were demo'ing the product at the trade show.
In the end the Idea Farmer has to possess several attributes for success:
- Done this before in the problem domain
- Have demonstrated success with the idea in the presence of all the problem that exist in the current problem.
- Have measurable success in units meaningful to the decision makers.
From an upcoming Quote of the Day
Remarkable Claims Require Remarkable Proof
If you've got an idea that you've farmed from somewhere else, you'd better be able to show it'll work in the current problem. Otherwise the idea farmer may be useful for collecting ideas but not that useful for solving problems that someone is interested in solving.
This separates the educator from the practitioner. The educator is a powerful introduction to the topic. The practitioner may also be an educator - possibly not as good or well versed in the art of teaching and motivating the students - but can get the job done, while mentoring and coaching others along the way.
