Ideation & Assessment 

Looking for ideas and ways to assess them while breaking them down? Check out this process for generating, evaluating, and transforming ideas into actionable steps.

Goal and Plan Ideation

A general approach to generating ideas for goals and plans includes the following steps:

• Define a Desired State: Start by identifying the desired state, which is typically about creating value. For example, this might involve aiming to feel as good as possible over time.

• Identify Challenges and Areas for Improvement: Pinpoint the challenges, problems, or areas that need improvement to achieve the desired state.

• Seek Solutions to Overcome Challenges: Explore potential solutions to address these challenges. These solutions often arise from logical thinking, such as analyzing the situation or drawing insights from past experiences.

Given the vast number of potential options for ideas and sources of inspiration, ideation is typically intertwined with the assessment of these ideas to ensure relevance and feasibility.

Assessment Guidelines

Assessing a goal or plan typically involves evaluating both the expected impact and the effort required over time, factoring in considerations of timing and likelihood of success.

While the specifics of impact and effort assessment depend heavily on the intended goal, the following general best practices can guide the evaluation process.

Impact

The impact of a goal or plan can be evaluated in various ways, depending on the expected outcome. Key aspects to consider include:

• Aspects of Well-being: Evaluate factors like emotional impact, survey results, or levels of satisfaction.

• Quantifiable Metrics: Use measurable indicators, such as financial outcomes, key performance indicators (KPIs), or time savings.

• Pros and Cons: Compile a clear list of advantages and disadvantages.

• Challenges and Opportunities: Identify potential obstacles and opportunities that may arise during implementation.

• Likelihood of Positive or Negative Impact: Assess the probability of success or failure. For instance, plans can become counterproductive or be disrupted by unforeseen events. Long-term plans often carry the highest risk due to unpredictable variables.

Effort and Feasibility

Effort is typically assessed by examining the following factors:

• Time and Energy Required: Consider the duration and level of effort needed to execute the plan.

• Investment: Evaluate financial or resource-related investments.

• Opportunity Cost: Assess the trade-offs of prioritizing this plan over other opportunities.

• Potential Positive or Negative Feelings: Account for joy doing the task, or stress, frustration, or other emotional costs.

• Available Resources and Limitations: Determine whether current resources are sufficient to achieve the goal.

• Likelihood of Feasibility: Estimate the probability that the required effort can be sustained or achieved.

Timeline

The timing of goals or actions significantly influences their impact and effort:

• Urgency: Goals or actions labeled as “urgent” typically need to be addressed in the short term to remain effective. The term often underly something important as well.

Balancing Metrics and Intuition

Not all decisions can be made solely based on metrics, pros and cons, or collective agreement. Sometimes, intuition and feelings play a crucial role, particularly when experience informs what seems most sensible

Endeavor Breakdown

When goals or plans appear too complex to achieve, breaking them into smaller, manageable components is essential. This approach simplifies the process, making it both achievable and motivating. By deconstructing high-level aspirations into a sequence of clear milestones, you can maintain focus and track progress effectively.

For example:

• A mountain is climbed step by step.

• A spacecraft is typically built using a system-based approach, where each subsystem contributes to the overall mission.

Goals and plans can be broken down to different levels being smaller high-level goals, plans, or down to specifics or sets of recurring or non-recurring actions, also referred to as processes.

Levels of Breakdown

Goals and plans can be deconstructed at various levels, depending on their complexity:

1. Smaller High-Level Goals or Plans: These serve as intermediate objectives that connect to the overarching goal.

2. Specific Actions: These are concrete steps that contribute to achieving the smaller goals.

3. Processes: Defined as recurring or non-recurring sets of actions that help streamline the path to success.

This hierarchical approach ensures that even the most ambitious plans become actionable, fostering both clarity and motivation. While effective planning requires the breakdown to reach the point of impact, one may need to remain at high level to direct larger plans.

Conclusion and Next step

You now have an overview of the basic process behind generating and assessing ideas, as well as breaking them down to make them more achievable endeavour. 

As a next step, we provide best practices of independent prioritization, focusing on prioritizing tasks within a fixed set of options, independent of external factors, by considering effort, impact, and timing. 

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