Is there such a thing as a "bad" idea?

“I’m in favor of it.” – The late John McKay’s reply to the question of what he thought about the execution of his woefully inept Tampa Bay Buccaneers team.

I’ve been thinking a lot about execution lately. Several projects that I’m involved with are coming to a close, and my team and I are evaluating what’s worked, what hasn’t and what we want to do differently the next time around. My piece last week about building more successful teams was a direct result of that thought process, for instance. Then I ran across this great Scott Adams post explaining why there are no bad ideas and why execution is everything.

It’s funny. I spend my time thinking about online strategy – how to find customers, how to get them to interact with a brand, how to entice them to spend money once they get there and how to engage them in coming back the next time they’re ready to spend money. But a guy who draws funny pictures about a dysfunctional workplace reminds us all of the single most important principle in business.

Just like any idea, a “great” strategy poorly executed is no better than a “poor” strategy executed flawlessly. Sure, in any strategy, any idea, there are going to be moments that don’t work out exactly as planned. And there are going to be things you learn along the way. But, execution is the name of the game.

When I was a kid, I worked on our school play, building sets after rehearsal in preparation for opening night. And, as I’m not the handiest when it comes to hammers, nails and other weapons of mass construction, I accidentally whacked myself in the head with a hammer while building a staircase. It didn’t seem to do any permanent damage – the hammer worked just fine afterwards. My head worked the same as it always had, though I’ll leave it to others to say whether it ever met the definition of “fine.” But it was a valuable learning experience in how not to use a hammer, (to say nothing of why, sometimes, you’re better off getting someone else to swing the hammer for you). Still, building the set itself was just an idea and it wasn’t good, bad or otherwise in and of itself. And despite the bumps on the head along the way, I achieved a positive result: The set worked as designed; a triumph of execution.

Over the last year or so, we’ve all experienced some of our own bumps and bruises. As the economy has stumbled along, it’s made many an idea look bad. But maybe it’s time to trot out some of those “bad” ideas for another try. And to see if a different spin on their execution isn’t just what you need to move your business forward. Just be sure and watch out for flying hammers.

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Image credit: Cellular Immunity via Flickr using Creation Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic.