Ideation: Learning to Love All 34 Talent Themes

On a recent Theme Thursday Season 1 live webcast, we discussed the Ideation theme with Todd Johnson, Gallup Global Channel Leader, Entrepreneurship and Job Creation.

Ideation is all about ideas. People with Ideation are fascinated by ideas and a new idea makes their day. Ideation revels in taking the world as we know it and turning it around so it can be viewed in a strange, but strangely enlightening, way. Ideation generates excitement and energy for those who possess it. Creativity, Complexity and Connectivity are the "Three Cs" of Ideation. Creativity drives those with Ideation to ask, "What if?" and explore new ideas. Ideation loves complexity for complexity's sake, but Ideation is also keen on complexity because people with Ideation want to make the complex simple. People with Ideation are adept at connecting seemingly disparate ideas -- this is their love of Connectivity in action.

Todd recently celebrated his 20-year anniversary at Gallup. For the first 10 years of his career, Todd was in charge of all Gallup business in Latin America. For the last 10 years, Todd has been using his Ideation to turn ideas based on Gallup science and research into products that customers want and value. To many Gallup clients, Todd is known as the "BP10 guy."

Recently, Todd has been contemplating data from the Gallup World Poll that says everyone around the world wants a good job. Todd has been thinking, "How do you get everyone in the world a good job?" Todd's Ideation let him turn this question over and over in his mind to come up with a myriad of ideas. One of his most successful ideas was to find and grow entrepreneurial talent through assessments like the BP10 (formerly EP10), which helps individuals discover their entrepreneurial strengths. This is an example of how Ideation can generate solutions to real world issues.

Sometimes, Todd has trouble differentiating between a bad idea and a good idea. His Ideation is so fascinated by all ideas -- good or bad -- it is hard for him to separate the two. Todd recognizes, though, that distinguishing between good and bad ideas is essential to a successful business model because wild and unchecked Ideation can bog an organization down in bad ideas. Todd uses a simple rule to weed out bad ideas, "If someone won't pay for it or it won't generate money, it is likely a bad idea." Todd also relies on his partners to keep his Ideation in check. That is, Todd runs new ideas by his colleagues to gauge their opinions and if they think it is a bad idea, he moves on.

To learn more about Ideation and how Todd uses it in his everyday life, watch the full video or listen to the audio above.

Todd Johnson's Top 5 CliftonStrengths are Self-Assurance, Competition, Ideation, WOO and Maximizer.