Bringing ideas to fruition the challenge

Re: Re: Damian Goulbourne: Time to take on Niagara’s sacred cows, Jan. 14

Damian Goulbourne is right. Niagara, or any other community, can only benefit from a flow of ideas, generated widely, to improve the well-being of our citizens. The idea of visioning exercises, in which many could be involved, is exciting. I hope it takes hold in Niagara.

However, I have a caveat. It is that ideas are only useful if they can be fully implemented in practice. It’s a sad fact that many useful ideas never see the light of day because organizations underestimate the complexities of introducing the idea into the “real world.”

In management circles, the strategic plan on the shelf syndrom (SPOTS) is all too well-known. In Niagara, we must make sure we don’t make this mistake.

If we are to create a “change-ready citizenry” in Niagara, we also need to make sure we have in place a cadre of managers who think deeply about how to get ideas to work in the community. The thinking “that’s a good idea” must be supplemented by “here’s how to implement the idea.”

This isn’t rocket science, and basically involves a willingness to take a nose dive into the hard nitty-gritties of planning, ie. to do everything needed to make the new idea a living reality.

So in the spirit of Goulbourne’s question, I would say that in Niagara, in order to improve the lot of our citizens, we need to look carefully at our planning strategies and mechanisms, to make sure we don’t just focus on broadly based plans, but are fully conscious of what it takes to bring a good idea to practical fruition We would then be better placed to benefit from new ideas, and from the upsurge in ideas which seems in prospect.

Ron McTavish St. Catharines