SPRING TO ACTION

I love ideas, but even more, I love seeing them spring to life. That’s what made a recent workshop with Steve Garguilo so exciting.

Steve, an expert in the science of taking action, spent three hours with our Vistage group. He coached us through a process he has developed to help people:

1) Ideate;

2) Collect feedback from others; and

3) Take meaningful action on ideas.

I asked Steve to share with me one thought about taking action, and here’s what he said…

To hear more from Steve, check out his TEDx talk, or pick up a copy of his latest book, Surge: Your Guide to Put Any Idea Into Action.

While ideas are cool, action (even when imperfect) is hot. The late Adam Yauch put it best when he said, “Let me get some action from the back section. We need body rocking not perfection.”

TRANSCRIPT

Chad Harvey (00:05): I’m Chad Harvey, here with Steve Garguilo. Steve, you are an expert in the science of taking action. What can you tell everybody about taking action?

Steve Garguilo (00:14): Yeah. I think one of the biggest things is just this recognition that action is a muscle. So just like any other muscle, it’s something that you can develop, but you got to work at it. And one of the best ways to work at it is when you recognize you’re not taking action on something is engaging other people. What we had the opportunity to do today is worked in small groups where you actually worked to generate actions for other people’s ideas. It’s always way easier to generate actions for other people’s ideas than it is to generate actions for your own ideas. And so the value that you get by getting actions from other people can really help spark you to be able to take action and be able to make an idea happen. And so we want to see everyone take action, right?

Chad Harvey (00:53): That is great. You’ve inspired me. I’m going to go take some action on lunch.

Steve Garguilo (00:57): [crosstalk 00:00:57] Perfect.

Chad Harvey (00:57): Thanks.