How To Put On Your Cape-abilities

In this blog post, you’ll continue to find strategies that you can use to shake up your thinking and unleash your innovation superpowers. Each post defines a tool you need, gives you a summary of what that tool can do for you, some questions that stir your thinking, and an exercise to get you started using the tool. You can either use the tools from start to finish to understand all the tools in your toolkit or you can pick up any tool — play around, use it, and discover how it works for you. 

The next ability in our Cape-ability series is … Excite-ability

Vocabulary.com defines Excitability as: “Reactivity, responsiveness to stimulation.  Being easily excited.”

Gert’s definition is: “Your ability to transfer your excitement about your ideas to others, so that they have genuine excitement and buy-in.”

Once you get people to believe in your brilliant thoughts, it’s time to build momentum and garner passion and excitement around your ideas and plans.  Find a way to pulse out information that keeps the intrigue going.

Creating anticipation of what’s to come (teasing, if you will) helps keep the audience’s interest and keeps your plans relevant. Build on people’s needs, stimulate their curiosity in what is to come heightens their expectations.

Excitability is contagious. People will want to participate in your idea when you can infect others with this same suspense for what’s to come, it creates swirl and disruptive buzz in the grooviest of ways. 

“Whatever you’re doing, give it all you got, share your passion, excitement and enthusiasm and let your vibe and energy become an inspiration to others.”

• Ricardo Housham

Provocative Q’s to ask yourself:

• When something new comes on the market, what gets you excited? Is it the marketing? Did you see an ad that intrigued you? Why? Do you keep seeing information on your social media feed that makes you curious?
• How might you take that underlying principle that made you so curious and apply it back to your idea? In what ways could you tease out bits of information about your idea that keeps the momentum going?

Exercises to help you explore Excite-ability:

• Leverage thought partners and ask them about what they’ve seen in the marketplace that got them excited. “Borrow” and repurpose those ideas to use for your own idea. Don’t just ask people who think like you do. Get all kinds of thought partners – including kids.  Kids come up with some of the most imaginative thoughts — no filter! Always remember to ask people “Why?” so you can get to an even deeper thought to apply.

What would you never do to build excitement around your idea and how can you twist it to make it work for you? Why do you find those ideas so naughty that they make you giggle? Now, how might you replicate those ideas into pulses that you can actually use?

--gert--