When I have an idea in my head, I begin to visualize what that idea might look like in the real world. How that idea interacts, plays, moves, and exists with other ideas… all in my head. But ideas that are stuck in my head are unlikely to ever manifest beyond my head. Most big ideas need teams of people to bring them to life.

If I try to tell someone about that idea -picture in my head, they, in turn, have to reconstruct the picture in their own head and use their imagination to visualize it.No matter how well I communicate the idea-picture, others are unlikely to make the same picture I’ve made in my head. But the closer I can get them to the picture is see, the more we’ll be in sync and on the same page.

The best way to show someone the picture in your head is to draw it for them. That could be on a whiteboard or in Photoshop. It could be in Abode XD or it could be motion graphics. It might just be stick figures and flow charts depending on who I’m sharing my picture with.

The hack to all of this is to find someone who can take the framework of your picture and show you the adjacent possible. The things you didn’t know it could be. Find someone who will hear and understand your vision, and then help you to make that vision better.

So the next time you hear “I have a great idea” just reply “Pics or it won’t happen.”