Beware of the 'Good Idea Fairy'

The other day, I found my son engrossed in reading – ‘NoEasy Day’ by Mark Owen and borrowed it from him.  This book is a first hand account of the operation carried out by Navy Seals to take out Osama Bin Laden in his safe compound at Abbotabad in Pakistan. The book is interesting for more than one reason. Apart from being a page turner, written in gripping style and simple yet catchy language by the Navy Seal commander who actually led one of the teams which killed Laden, it contains a number of management principles.

The importance that US military attaches to training comes out clear from the book. Its personnel are put through some of the most excruciating and sophisticated training exercise that mimics the ground realities. They go to the field well trained, conduct operations, are called back to train again. The trainers are themselves people hot from the field. This back and forth continues and the Mark Owen comments that they themselves noticed that they have improved after such regular routines. But they also noticed that the enemy had also evolved with each of their postings. Each time you are prepared to face tougher challenges. The book gets its title from the Seal motto: ‘the only easy day was yesterday’.

One interesting concept that the Seals warn you to be on your guard is that of the ‘good idea fairy’. These are well intentioned people removed from execution of projects who come up with fantastic ideas for others to implement.  These well-intentioned people dream up solutions for non-existent concerns and slow teams down. 

Here is an example that is quoted in the book.  Laden was living in a neighborhood with lots of houses. During the operation there will be lot of gunfire and grenade blasts which is likely to wake the neighborhood up. Someone sitting far removed from operational logistics decided that during the middle of the night attack a group of Seals would be tasked with attaching a police light to the roof of one of Osama's Land Rovers in the early moments of the attack. A group of Seals were to push the Land Rover out of the compound to the road with flashing police lights to convince the locals that it is a mere police action. This group was to then join the battle.

This well intentioned armchair idea was ridiculous from an operational perspective. Why in the world would anyone going to catch the most notorious terrorist of the world, hiding in a compound abutting a Pak military base, without the knowledge of the country, waste any precious time in the attack. And, are the neighbors woken in the middle of the night by the sounds of war -- helicopters, machine guns, explosions -- next door would believe that a local police action was taking place, simply because a car with a flashing blue light happened to be blocking the street? The idea was discarded by the guys who were well trained and experienced in carrying out raids in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The origin of the term ‘good idea fairy’ is in the U.S. military and describes a mythical creature that whispers advice and ideas into the ears of leadership, causing hundreds of unnecessary changes and countless wasted man-hours. Owen says in the book: “if we had all the time we wasted fighting the good idea fairy back, we might have gained few years of our life.”

We all come up against good idea fairies at different points of time.There is a blog by a school teacher how the theory is applicable even in everyday work and on how one should be careful.

There is another interesting blog on good idea fairy at EngineerLeader cautioning against this fairy who shows up in the eleventh hour just when the moment of execution is about to arrive and brings in a whole list of unnecessary changes and additional work. Engineer Leader points out that it is the leaders responsibility to control the good idea fairy and the only way to do it is through courage and preparation.

The good idea fairy preys on the inexperienced, easily confused, and leaders unable to listen to sound advice. To keep the fairy away the engineer leader suggest the following:

Surround Yourself with Subject Matter Experts:  It is not possible for a leader to know everything, nor should you.  When you’re handed a project to lead and you don’t know how to solve each minute component, it is the leaders job to find those that do and enlist their support.

Listen to Good Advice.  Everybody has an opinion but few have good advice.  A good leader develops the intuition to tell the difference, and actually listens to it.  The leader should listen to everyone’s input but then make the decision on the good advice. 

Prepare well and eliminate confusion: Good idea fairy is more likely to visit the confused ones. To eliminate the confusion in problem solving, first step is to define the problem correctly and then begin investing time towards solving that problem.

 Set a Good Idea Fairy Cut-off Date: Ideas are good to have.  Do proper planning through brainstorming.  Get the stakeholders involved and it may lead to innovative and smart solutions. Ensuring that everyone has a chance to contribute their ideas can go a long way to check the good idea fairy. However, at some point the ideas aren’t helpful anymore, and a cut off date for new ideas need to be set. 

The management principle to be learnt: One important management principle that comes out of No Easy Day is that you need to trust the operational leadership. The best laid plans are the first casualty of the battle. So, many a times the best plans are simple and flexible. The operational leadership on the ground should have the flexibility to execute and innovate on the go, especially in complex, constantly shifting, unpredictable situations. It is easy to suggest new ideas, but the one on the ground, executing the task knows how best to handle a situation and it is better to leave it to them than to rely on 'arm chair quarter backs' who might not even have played the game, except watching TV, and are full of ideas and suggestions on what the team should do. 

Keeping the good idea fairies away is a leadership challenge.