Have you ever completed a charitable run or walk? Remember the training schedule? Week one you may have been walking a mile each day. Week two added another 1/2 mile. Week 3 you were walking two miles. These training schedules have us start small and work our way up over months. Starting by running a 10k on the first day of training is usually too much for people. Not to mention not all that good for you. We know that when we exercise we have to start small and work our way up.
Why then do we expect a different process for innovation? When we have a big problem to solve it is natural to think that a big solution will fix it. One for one. One big solution for one big problem. The problem with one big solution is risk. One big project takes up a lot of resources and it may not work in the end.
More often than not I think there can be many small solutions that combined will fix the big problem. Perhaps ten solutions for one big problem. If you look at your one big problem that way working on ten smaller solutions is more manageable and less risky.
Have you been agonizing over one big problem at your association? Are you stuck? Get unstuck. Chunk that big problem up into a bunch of smaller solutions and get started. Each subsequent small solution project will become easier.
