Getting Out Of The Box

by Marcia Zidle, Columnist & Featured Contributor

We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.”

–Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.

There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.”

–Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977

The is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a ‘C,’ the idea must be feasible.”

–A Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith’s paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service. (Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.)

[su_dropcap style=”flat”]W[/su_dropcap]E MAY SMILE at these examples from history, yet people say comments likes those above every day in the workplace.

Organizations, especially in times of change, depend increasingly on the ability of their leaders to help managers and front line workers to think and do things differently. In other words….to do new things and to do routine things in new ways.

So, how do we get out of the box especially when most people are comfortable staying with the tried and true rather than exploring and championing the new? Here are some suggestions:

1. Stretch your brain.

When a group meets to come up with new ideas, it is helpful to begin with a fun activity to start the creatively juices flowing.

Example: Here’s what I did recently with the executive team and staff of an organization that was moving into a new building and wanted to create a different culture. Breaking up into three teams – with newsprint and a box of crayons, stickers, and other resources – I asked them to imagine that it’s 2017 and you’re in the new building.

• What would it look like?

• What would you be doing?

• What do you see, hear and feel?

Each group created a unqiue picture focusing on different aspects of the future culture. This lead to a rich discussion on how to translate their visions into reality.

2. Transform your perspective.

A good way to come up with solutions to problems is to look at them from a perspective that you never considered before.

Example: Bank executives were asked to think of outrageous ways to make their customers very angry. One suggested closing down credit lines without informing customers—causing checks to bounce without any warning. (How would you like that to happen to you?) What they realized is that one of the bank’s greatest assets is the perception of total reliability by the customer. They then focused on ways to ensure that reliability.

3. Ask the right questions.

Many poor decisions can be traced to asking the wrong questions and to inappropriate, incomplete or poorly framed questions. Good questions should be open enough for creative solutions but narrow enough to focus on solving a specific problem.

Example: A consumer products company was testing an idea for a household cleaner specially formulated for washing walls. Focus groups of consumers were asked to compare the new product’s cleaning ability to that of general purpose cleaners. All participants agreed that the new product cleaned better. Armed with this information, the company put the new product into production, advertised extensively and waited for the orders to come pouring in.

They waited and waited and waited. The product failed. While the company was asking consumers how well the product cleaned, they did not ask the most important question: How often do you wash your walls? By the time they learned that most people do not spend time washing walls, they had spent millions of dollars. Lesson: Before making important decisions, spend time thinking about the questions that you need to ask. Good questions lead to good decisions.

As a leader, what are you doing to get of out your box?   What are you doing to help your people get of their boxes?