From Ideas to Action: How Leaders Get Projects Done

Ideas are great, but actually finishing projects is what really matters. Many people get stuck between having brilliant ideas and seeing them through to completion. This can be frustrating for everyone involved, especially if you’re not the one with all the ideas.

So, how do you manage a flood of new ideas and still get important work done? It’s about being smart with your approach and focusing on what truly moves the needle.

Splitting Ideas Into Actionable Piles

When faced with a lot of ideas, the first step is to sort them. I tend to split them into two main categories: quick wins and long-term projects. Anything that doesn’t fit neatly into these two piles? I usually just set it aside for now.

Key Takeaways

• Prioritise ruthlessly: Focus on one or two key initiatives at a time.
• Quick wins matter: Small, impactful tasks can boost morale and efficiency.
• Long-term bets need focus: Commit to bigger projects and see them through.
• Manual first, then automate: Understand the process before making it digital.

Quick Wins: The Low-Hanging Fruit

Quick wins are those simple, easy tasks that have a good, strong impact. If something can be done in under half an hour and offers a real benefit, it’s often worth doing straight away. These small improvements can make a big difference to customer service or make your staff happier.

A good example of this is a simple rule we have: if something costs under £50 and is needed for the business, you don’t need special authorisation. It’s not worth the admin time to process a small purchase. This empowers people to make decisions quickly.

Another example: someone suggested putting little stickers with flags on people’s badges at a networking event to show what languages they speak. It’s a simple, cheap, and quick idea that can be implemented easily by just leaving stickers on a table. Done.

Long-Term Projects: The Big Impact Ideas

Then there are the more complicated ideas that could have a significant impact on the business. These often require more resources and time. For these, you need to be very selective. It’s best to focus on just one or two at a time.

When I start working with a business, I often have many conversations and come up with lots of ideas. However, the goal is to pick out just one or two that we’re going to focus on right now. We keep track of the other ideas, of course, for future consideration.

Artificial intelligence is a good example. There are countless things you could do with AI. But perhaps the first step should be creating a clear policy. This isn’t overly complicated. You can assign someone to be in charge of AI, create a policy, and get everyone to sign it. This stops people from doing random things with AI.

The Challenge of Execution

While ideas are fantastic, getting things over the line is the real challenge. If you’re constantly jumping from one new thing to the next, it’s incredibly difficult to make progress. As a part-time leader, for instance, you have to be even more focused on picking your battles and getting things finished efficiently.

Sometimes, the problem isn’t the idea itself, but that the business isn’t quite ready to implement the technology. This can lead to projects being parked indefinitely. This is why having a mix of quick wins alongside longer-term projects is so important. The longer-term ones can easily get stuck because they often involve research and development, whereas quick wins can be completed rapidly.

Tackling Overwhelming Tasks

This is especially true for areas like cybersecurity or managing the lifecycle of IT equipment. You might want a full policy, a budget, and a detailed plan, but this can take a lot of time, especially if the current situation is a mess. I once spent 45 days just walking around and auditing computer systems because the IT was in such bad shape.

When faced with so many things to do, it can feel overwhelming. With cyber security or AI, there are so many potential actions. The simplest approach is to pick one thing and get it done. If you have many cyber issues, identify the biggest risk you can fix in the next two hours and tackle that. This moves things forward.

So, my recommendation for what tasks to focus on is to pick one or two small wins and one big project – your main focus, or ‘whale’. It might not always work out perfectly, and that’s okay. The key is to have a clear process for how you’re working and making progress.