This post was written for International Ideas Month. According to its creators, IIM is "dedicated to all ideas—large, small, great, not-so-great, past and current as well as ideas yet to come. Without constant new ideas, progress and people stagnate." This is the first in a series of posts on ideas.

We all have ideas we want to share -- for our jobs, our community work or at home. But it's not always easy to communicate those ideas, especially if we're pressed for time, anxious or if the situation is charged.

2 ways to quickly pull together your ideas

This two-step process was developed for school kids, so I'm confident you can master it:

1. Pre-write to firm up your thinking and identify the right details to support it
2. Draft to combine the ideas and details quickly and clearly

1. Pre-write your ideas

The Idea-Details® Strategy is a fast way to suss out your thoughts and make sure there's enough there there. You can do a quick inventory in 5 minutes or less by capturing the most important thing you want others to know and the relevant details that support that main concept. Start by writing down your big idea, like this:

Then add the supporting details. They can be simple, like these, or meatier (learn more about great details):

2. Draft your piece

Writing is the best way to think through your ideas. Write out some sentences to convey information vital for your idea and audience. Work quickly to capture the ideas. Go back through later to make revisions to make sure the content's in a logical order and to improve word choice and sentence construction. Tip: Drafting is an important process even if you're going to be speaking your thoughts and not sharing them in writing.

Finally, take a breath and share your great ideas!

Related Content:

• More ways to use the Idea-Details Strategy
• How to build a rationale for your killer idea
• My slide deck on harnessing the power of your ideas for advocacy