That 'Crazy Idea' You Are Holding Onto May Not Be That Crazy After All
Posted on April 24, 2024 by Bob Graham, One of Thousands of Business Coaches on Noomii.
Clients who are willing to risk their reputation with a coach by sharing their crazy ideas can often find something really great hidden inside.
At least once a week one of my coaching clients lowers his voice and tells me “a crazy idea” or something “you will tell me makes no sense.”
Those moments are some of my favorites as a coach.
For it is then that I realize a few important things that others might overlook.
Here they are:
1. My client and I have built enough trust to go places most small business owners fear and as a result never explore.
2. My client wants to share something that’s been nagging them, sometimes for years.
3. If we can parse it and tweak it enough, it can spark the greatest innovation.
In almost every case, my clients’s crazy idea is the germ of something big, something important, something that will better serve the client or their employees.
Dressed on the outside in a crazy costume, these great innovations are like the imperfect body within each of us.
We have to wash it, then enhance it with clothes, perfume, hair care and everything else.
It’s the same with crazy ideas.
Washed and enhanced they create, well, magic.
The problem few want to go through the process. It can be tedious, time-consuming and downright painful. But from it, well, anything is possible.
Years ago, I had lunch with an IT team I was working with. I made a crazy statement about how we could change a process to keep our clients, parents and their in-school children, better informed of our progress on grading their testing. It was plain fantasy.
Until we returned to work and two of the IT guys started playing with the idea. The next day they invited me into their office area. I was scared. They never invited me into their hallowed hall.
They showed me how my idea could work with our platform. It was so great to see my idea become reality.
I realized then and there that great ideas come from the craziest of places.
So now, whenever my clients tell me they are going to share something they think is crazy, I perk up.
Because I know something great is hidden inside.
And it’s my job to help them find it.
