Ideal Versus Practical – The Battle of Innovation

There is a huge battle being waged that SHOULD NEVER GO AWAY. It is the war between  what is ideal and what is practical. Almost always, practical wins, and for good reason. With the developed methods, ideal and practical are too far apart. The big opportunity for innovation lives where an ideal is worth pursuing.

Experts are often the toughest people to get to innovate. Their understanding of a topic is so sound they are able to skip steps and come to solid conclusions quickly. They become very practical and can almost automatically apply their experience and insights to the situation and show you many reasons why an idea will not work. The problem is their verdict may be premature. How can they adequately assess the decision if they do not build an ideal and determine a value of it – before they decide whether or not to do something?

Brainstorming an ideal solution must be free of constraints at first. Then once an ideal is identified, apply the constraints and refine the solution to work.

Most companies are set up that allows practicality to ride its wave of momentum and win. You can overcome this with a team designed to go in and pursue the ideal and make it practical. If a company only makes practical decisions, it runs the risk of becoming an easy to replace commodity.