I reckon there’s value in a ‘Think big, start small’ team. A team that brings captivating visions to life, paints a picture of the end goal and the steps along the way. Finally, they create the first small step on that path.

To help the transformation happen.

This isn’t new. I daresay this model has played out hundreds if not thousands of times before. It sounds a lot like what I imagine working in an agency is like.

So the key thing is to make that team responsible for the first small step on the path. The product or service that gets traction, that grows. They have to build it, own it, sustain it. Prove that the strategy might just work.

It sounds better than the alternative: paying consultants a hefty fee to throw together a bunch of slide decks, engage in corporate divination, and hand over a four-pillared plan.

To do this thinking big and starting small, you’d need a depth of understanding – of the organisation, its people and its mission – to do it well. Many people are good at thinking big, but by starting small, you become accountable.

This isn’t about building an innovation lab or a skunkworks. That doesn’t work, not always. It’s not about letting one team have grand ideas which are punted over the fence to be delivered. This is about sustaining innovation, using hard-won knowledge, purpose and passion as fuel.

It’s about using momentum. Putting weight behind boulders that have already started rolling.

It would let people play. Immerse themselves in an idea, speculate on what it might look like, how it might work. Make the vision feel tangible, inspiring. Get the story right.

It would give them the space to do the hard yards: make a couple of the ideas real, test the ideas against reality. Start to understand what is required – of the organisation’s money, its people, its time – to go down this path.

Once the route seems more sure, they’d be able to start moving in that direction. A first foray into an exciting future. Something they can be really proud of, and that will bring other people along.

All of this needs knowledge, passion, and time. And commitment.

Change is hard, it needs lots of people giving it lots of time. But change has to start somewhere.

Maybe it starts with you.