A colleague recently arrived at my door with a “great idea.” I listened patiently and finally told him “sure, that sounds like a good idea. I think your first step would be to….”
He interrupted me to say, “I thought you would do that. I’m more of a ‘big idea’ person. You know, I come up with the ideas, then I let others implement them.”
My mind immediately returned to the time about 20 years ago, when a principal told me the same thing. Both my colleague and the principal had fine ideas. Not recognizably innovative, but both addressed issues in the school that needed attention.
Both left disappointed when I told them I already had my plate full of projects that had emerged out of my own work. I know the principal’s project never came to fruition; I suspect my colleague’s project won’t either. In my experience, the folks who are “big ideas” people rarely have time to follow through because they are too busy themselves (perhaps implementing some other “big idea” person’s projects) or they find it the project management skills necessary for implement the ideas to be outside their skill set.
There does appear to be one strategy whereby the “big idea” person can see their ideas implemented: find someone new to the field who is eager for a first project. I recall the first project I undertook as a professional educator found me learning to use some curriculum in drug and alcohol prevention—it was 1988. The assistant principal was charged with implementing the curriculum and she asked me to go the training and to begin using with my middle school students and helping other teachers to plan lessons as well.
I don’t recall if that assistant principal was a “big idea” person or not, but she helped my begin my career working as a teacher of teachers.
If you are an early career professional, I recommend you take the chance to accept the idea of a “big idea” person to start your career. When you follow through, you will have an advocate who will promote your work forever—after all you helped them. In some cases, mine was an example, I was not heavily invested in that first project. It was important and I am glad I did it, but it was not the field where I wanted to build my career. As soon as the grant funding that work expired, it was dropped, and I was ready for new ideas.
Those years I was first taking on someone else’s project, I was also discovering what was to focus my career. That exploration is (in my opinion) as important as what you discover as a college student. When you get into the “real world,” you discover who has lied to you and about what they have lied. You discover what really matters and what that matters that you can build into a career.
If you find a big idea person who uses you to build your own project, you also learn lessons that make you never need them again. You will have your own ideas and you will be too busy implementing them to bother with other again.