Making Ideas Happen in Legal Marketing

The dreamers, the doers, and the incrementalists are three personality types identified by author Scott Belsky in his new book “Making Ideas Happen,” (Penguin Group USA Inc., 2010). The first group generates a constant stream of new ideas, but has trouble executing. The doers focus on the logistics of implementation, without the flow of creative genius. Incrementalists share traits of both, but move so quickly through cycles of idea generation and execution that they never fully develop any one concept. All parties can get trapped on the "project plateau," that painful period when you face the reality of how long project implementation can actually take.

If you are part of a legal team that must work quickly and effectively to respond to changing market conditions, this book is a quick read that will open your eyes to higher levels of productivity.

Many ideas in this book (which focuses on "making ideas happen" in a general context) can be applied to legal marketing campaigns, which frequently involve multiple specialists like social media experts, website designers, copywriters, and search engine marketing consultants.

Here are some key project management recommendations from the author:

- A relentless bias toward action pushes ideas forward
- Each person must “own” their action steps
- Spending time on notes is not worth the effort
- Design and personalization play a role in organizational systems
- Organize around projects, not location

Emphasis is on action steps in this book, and how different personality types can collaborate to maximize performance. I found it very interesting and recommend the book to you.