Obama's first speech to the Congress

An excellent speech - true to his repuation of being a great orator.

The speech had all the ingredients of a historic communication that will be remembered for a long time to come. There was that attempt to inject unifying force where eleced representatives from across the political boundaries can find a common ground to debate on.

The speech had the elements of inspiration when he remembered subtle and yet extraordinary efforts of common people, in the face of adversity and their indomitable spirit of "we are not quitters".

I can simply go on and on about this speech. Why don't you check this out yourself here

Problem with good ideas

Good ideas are controversial and difficult to implement. I have experienced it many times. Good ideas tend to shatter the generally accepted norms in our environs. It takes a lot of hard work to gather data in support of your argument and erase the patterns of data arrangement and established insights around them. Even if you get over this obstacle by successfully convincing people with your rationale, you only land up at another in seemingly insurmountable barrier of implementation.

It being your idea, and it was you who ran from post to pillar to get clearance for implementation, it will undoubtedly be you who stands to gain the most with successful implementation – is how the whole affair is seen by the people. This is where most of the good ideas are stuck. It is where implementers ponder over different options to find the way forward.

It may be the point where whole thing gets wedged, but the problem definitely does not belong here. The problem started with the projection of idea as yours. The problem started as soon as you came up with your idea.

Tackle the problem early on - throw the problem at your team and help them define it precisely and guide them in finding the solution in such a way that they eventually land on the most viable solution – which could exactly have been similar to the idea that you had in your mind. This exercise gives the sense of invention to your team and they suddenly take the ownership of your idea. Now your team drives the idea and for you the challenge shifts from forcing the implementation effort to matching their eagerness with astute facilitation and resource mobilization.

In brief it is about overcoming the ego and letting the team take prominence.