Ideas VS the opportunity to make them happen

I’m sure that in our relentless pursuit of internet wandering and entertainment (er, inspiration), that many of of us have already seen the Volkswagen sponsored Fun Theory project. If you’re not familiar, they have a simple and powerful idea:

This site [thefuntheory.com] is dedicated to the thought that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behavior for the better.

And that idea looks like this:

It is always refreshing to see creative and talented people use a unique lens to look at and re-think conventional activity. It’s even more encouraging when their perspective is used to promote healthy behavior. It made me think, though, this project is and helpful and inspirational, but the people implementing these creative ideas are very different from the people who implemented the current solutions that aren’t working as well as they could.

So, creative ideas that encourage positive behaviors are great. But what if we stepped back from the ideas themselves and focused on making the jobs of the people implementing public solutions ‘fun’? What if we gave them creative freedom and planning how citizens dispose of garbage was a position coveted by high-level talent?

Ideas are awesome. Giving people the continual opportunity to implement them is the basis for change.