Having just returned from our four day meeting of the Speakers Roundtable, my brain is chock full of ideas. One might think it would now simply be a matter of implementation. Certainly doing as much as possible as quickly as possible isn’t a bad idea. But it isn’t the best idea.

The problem with ideas is that we often forget to integrate them into our existing framework. For new ideas to be valuable and strategic, we need to determine where they fit with what we’re already doing. Sometimes abandonment of the past is necessary to make room for the adoption of the new. Other times it is a matter of adjustment and ordering. But a big idea not well integrated is like adding a mobile home to the back of a mansion. While functional, it just doesn’t fit right.

Too often we implement new ideas and although we might derive some benefit, we realize the idea had limited impact. That’s because we didn’t make the time to integrate before implementation.