A Very Interesting Ad

A Very Interesting Ad

The doctor's waiting room glowed with old magazines.

As I stood there amidst this strange illumination, I noticed an ad for IBM Consulting that featured an executive woman peering thoughtfully into the distance. In the foreground hung the three questions that haunt every business that has ever achieved success:

How do we keep our latest innovation from becoming our last?

How do we keep our organization as agile as a startup?

How do we keep a fear of risk from blinding us to opportunity?

The selection of these questions was pure genius. I applaud the ad writer. Even more brilliant was the fact that none of them was answered. For that, you'd have to call IBM Consulting.

To pass the time, I decided to draft my own answers to each of these haunting questions:

How do we keep our latest innovation from becoming our last?

Trust your intuition. Remember how to play. Do at least one crazy thing each day.

SPECIFICALLY: When your mind begins to wander and you find yourself thinking a strange and unproductive thought, ask, “What would it cost me to chase this rabbit right now?” If you can afford the time, unleash the fun-loving beagle in your brain to chase that zigzagging rabbit of distraction. But don't be surprised if these furry little friends lead you to a brilliant innovation. The rabbit of distraction is often a topological recognition cue and the beagle is always pattern recognition, a function of your brain's intuitive and wordless right hemisphere. Having recognized a possible solution to a puzzle you've been unconsciously trying to solve, the freewheeling beagle in your right brain whispers to the logical lawyer of the left, “Woo-hoo! Did you see that? Follow me!” It is the rabbit of inexplicable distraction, Alice, that will guide you into Wonderland.

How do we keep our organization as agile as a startup?

Carve into the top of your desk where you can see it every day, “The truth shall make you free, but first it shall make you angry.”

SPECIFICALLY: Allow people who haven't drunk your Kool-Aid and have no reverence for your success to study your core strengths in search of the weaknesses that could be exploited by a challenger. When a competitive strategy is discovered that could actually work, do it to yourself before someone else does. Become your own competitor. And be merciless.

Recognize that all answers are temporary. Allow no cow to become sacred. Yesterday's brilliant insight is tomorrow's traditional method.

Specifically: Hang a 12-foot banner on the wall in the hallway, “I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones.” Gather your staff every morning and have them say these words out loud in unison like the Pledge of Allegiance. I'm not just being colorful here. I'm being completely serious. The inertia of corporate, cultural memory cannot be overcome without employing a physical action and repeating it as a group for at least 13 consecutive days. This is absolutely essential if you plan to overcome “the way it's always been.” Changing corporate policy, having a meeting, and sending out a memo just won't get it done.

How do we keep a fear of risk from blinding us to opportunity?

Remember that proof-of-concept never requires you to bet the farm. Ideas that seem prohibitively dangerous can always be affordably tested. Create a culture of experimentation whose mantra is, “There are no ideas too crazy to test.”

SPECIFICALLY: Budget for failure. Set aside hard dollars for testing new ideas with “an increase in knowledge” being the only expected outcome. Risk is now eliminated. Fear is gone. You will have created the perfect environment for successful Research and Development.

Hopefully, there is something here you can use. I always give you my best.

Roy H. Williams