The Backburner

It's 2am, you've woken up and sat straight up in bed.  You've never felt this awake before, you have the most brilliant idea that is going to revolutionise your industry.  Eureka!  You look at the time and smile, settle back down and go back to sleep.

Next morning comes around.  You wake up, but not as awake as you were at 2am.  Then you remember, your innovative idea.  But the problem is, you don't quite remember.  And you are questioning if it really was as great as you thought it was.  You just don't know because you really don't remember the details all that well, just some vague outline of what it might have been about.

This happened to me all too many times.  Then I'd start to write them down because I was sick of forgetting the details.  I'd read in them in the morning and often found these ideas were reasonably sound.  However, the timing might not have been right or I didn't know the right people.  Then when the opportunity arose to use the idea, or I was looking for a new concept to pursue, the paper I had written it on was long since gone.

This led me to create a document called The Backburner.  This document contains short dot-points on ideas that I have from time to time.  When something comes to mind, or comes across my desk, it is noted in The Backburner - filed away for future reference.  I create this document for each new job and date each idea and reference it if it's not my own.  

This way, we can collect information for future processes.  We can make suggestions to clients further down the track, and we can capture what people say and credit those people for their suggestions.  This creates a holistic approach to not only BPM and the art of workflow and process mapping, it helps with any endeavour that needs an injection of innovative thinking.  The Backburner becomes your well of good ideas.