“A new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn; it can be stabbed to death by a joke or worried to death by a frown on the right person’s brow.”
Bruce Lund is the owner/founder of Lund and Company Innovation, a toy design and product invention company (inventors of Tickle Me Elmo). His company is dedicated to the proposition that toys are profoundly important. Great toys teach, entertain, surprise, inspire and invite inquiry.
Mr. Lund wrote this blog and I thought it was so good, I wanted to share it with you. Normally, I post a brief quote and then comment on it, but in this case, I’m passing on his blog in its entirety without comment . . . there’s nothing I could say that would improve or clarify what he has written. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Bruce Lund on The Beginner’s Mind
In our work, we have to have the ‘Beginner's Mind’, that innocent state of mind - a way of thinking and believing that all things are possible. I had forgotten that term. The Beginner's Mind does not know what cannot be done, and thus all things become possible.
Typically, as we age and learn, we develop this acute sense of what can’t be done, what is impossible. We become clever, logical, and incisive in our thinking and we begin to start demonstrating to others how smart we are at perceiving what won’t work. Most all of the designers I have worked with over these last 25 years have been keen to explain to me why ideas I suggest will not or cannot work. I am always entertained by their explanations and often frustrated, I will admit. But of course, they are on the threshold of discovering the processes of invention. These processes make the unlikely possible, and on occasion, the impossible possible. But only if you can approach the work with the Beginner’s Mind.
When we take on a project that we do not believe can work, we will always be right - and it won’t work. It is a tribute to the designers, inventors, and tinkerers who have been successful contributors to our team that they have been able set aside their inborn, natural critic to undertake projects without pre-judgment of the likely outcome. In doing so, they are often surprised at what they accomplish.
There is a special joy in making something that one didn’t think could be made, in doing something one didn’t believe could be done. We do that time and again because we are willing to believe all things are possible with the innocence of thought, the absence of doubt, the suspension of disbelief . . . the Beginner's Mind.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Monday, August 24, 2009
Don't Waste Time Trying to Change Behavior
“As managers, we have to get out of the behavior modification business.”
We can help people with skills . . . to improve old ones or learn new ones. But it’s just about impossible to change their behaviors in any meaningful way. Yet we continue to waste time trying.
Take the example of Bill, ace IT guy. He’s an electronics genius. There isn’t anything with a circuit board that he doesn’t know or can’t figure out. Unfortunately, he’s perpetually crabby, ill-tempered, and believes everybody in the building is an idiot except for him. He’s been counseled, numerous times, about his hostile behavior. He always acknowledges the criticism and pledges to do better, but within about an hour and a half, he’s back to his old crabby, ill-tempered self. He’s 35 years old. It’s very unlikely that a few counseling sessions are going to undo the behaviors it took Bill 35 years to learn.
The best solution, of course, is to hire people whose behaviors are a good fit with your company’s culture. But nobody bats 1000 when it comes to hiring the right people. Sometimes we get it wrong and end up with Bill. When we do, we have to recognize that he is what he is and wasting time trying to modify his behavior would be a fool’s errand. Our only real options are to show him the door or find ways to put up with him.
“Consider how hard it is to change yourself and you’ll understand what little chance you have of trying to change others.”
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
We can help people with skills . . . to improve old ones or learn new ones. But it’s just about impossible to change their behaviors in any meaningful way. Yet we continue to waste time trying.
Take the example of Bill, ace IT guy. He’s an electronics genius. There isn’t anything with a circuit board that he doesn’t know or can’t figure out. Unfortunately, he’s perpetually crabby, ill-tempered, and believes everybody in the building is an idiot except for him. He’s been counseled, numerous times, about his hostile behavior. He always acknowledges the criticism and pledges to do better, but within about an hour and a half, he’s back to his old crabby, ill-tempered self. He’s 35 years old. It’s very unlikely that a few counseling sessions are going to undo the behaviors it took Bill 35 years to learn.
The best solution, of course, is to hire people whose behaviors are a good fit with your company’s culture. But nobody bats 1000 when it comes to hiring the right people. Sometimes we get it wrong and end up with Bill. When we do, we have to recognize that he is what he is and wasting time trying to modify his behavior would be a fool’s errand. Our only real options are to show him the door or find ways to put up with him.
“Consider how hard it is to change yourself and you’ll understand what little chance you have of trying to change others.”
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Delegating Effectively
“One of the greatest challenges as a manager is how to delegate so effectively that once you have gotten the monkey off your back, your employees don’t return it to you . . . with instructions for its care and feeding.”
An important part of leadership, delegation, is growing the people who are under the leader’s care. It takes time and it takes effort, but it’s the only way to develop a strong, effective team.
Picture this. You’ve just given one of your direct reports an important assignment. Soon the direct report returns with questions, lots of questions. In the back of your mind you’re thinking, “I could do this myself in just a fraction of the time it’s going to take me to explain everything.” If you give in to that thought, two bad things happen: the monkey climbs on your back again, and you miss a growth opportunity for your direct report.
So how do you move the assignment forward and still keep the monkey where it belongs?
First, you need to invest the time in your direct report. And that’s what it is. It’s not a waste of your time, it’s an investment in growing one of your people. Second, to make this a learning and growing opportunity, don’t spoon feed your direct report with all the answers. Make him/her come up with his/her own answers. For instance, when your charge says, “I’m not sure if we should do X or Y.” Don’t say, “Let’s go with X.” Instead say,
“What do you think?”
“Why do you think that would be a better choice than the other?”
“Have you asked any of your colleagues for their opinions?”
“Have you talked with others in the organization who will be affected by your decision?”
“Have you talked with stakeholders outside the organization who may be impacted.?”
The point is, don’t be the answer person. Be the question person who helps draw out of your direct report the excitement of creativity and discovery. Yes it will take some time, but you’ll end up with a more effective, self-confident employee. And the monkeys will stay where they belong.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
An important part of leadership, delegation, is growing the people who are under the leader’s care. It takes time and it takes effort, but it’s the only way to develop a strong, effective team.
Picture this. You’ve just given one of your direct reports an important assignment. Soon the direct report returns with questions, lots of questions. In the back of your mind you’re thinking, “I could do this myself in just a fraction of the time it’s going to take me to explain everything.” If you give in to that thought, two bad things happen: the monkey climbs on your back again, and you miss a growth opportunity for your direct report.
So how do you move the assignment forward and still keep the monkey where it belongs?
First, you need to invest the time in your direct report. And that’s what it is. It’s not a waste of your time, it’s an investment in growing one of your people. Second, to make this a learning and growing opportunity, don’t spoon feed your direct report with all the answers. Make him/her come up with his/her own answers. For instance, when your charge says, “I’m not sure if we should do X or Y.” Don’t say, “Let’s go with X.” Instead say,
“What do you think?”
“Why do you think that would be a better choice than the other?”
“Have you asked any of your colleagues for their opinions?”
“Have you talked with others in the organization who will be affected by your decision?”
“Have you talked with stakeholders outside the organization who may be impacted.?”
The point is, don’t be the answer person. Be the question person who helps draw out of your direct report the excitement of creativity and discovery. Yes it will take some time, but you’ll end up with a more effective, self-confident employee. And the monkeys will stay where they belong.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Let Your Customers Explain It to You
“If you listen closely enough, your customers will explain your business to you.”
Your customers don’t have to do business with you. They have many suppliers from which to choose, but they have chosen you. Why? What is it about the product or service you offer that brings you customers and keeps them? You think you know why your customers have chosen to do business with you, but do you really know?
Sadly, too many business people aren’t in touch with what their customers are buying. We think we’re selling price but our customers are buying on-time delivery. We think we’re selling world class service but our customers are buying long-term durability.
The answer is to stop telling your customers what you want to sell them and start listening to what they want to buy. Take a customer to lunch, leave your pre-conceived notions at home, and he or she really will explain your business to you. You might just learn that you’re not in the business you thought you were in.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
Your customers don’t have to do business with you. They have many suppliers from which to choose, but they have chosen you. Why? What is it about the product or service you offer that brings you customers and keeps them? You think you know why your customers have chosen to do business with you, but do you really know?
Sadly, too many business people aren’t in touch with what their customers are buying. We think we’re selling price but our customers are buying on-time delivery. We think we’re selling world class service but our customers are buying long-term durability.
The answer is to stop telling your customers what you want to sell them and start listening to what they want to buy. Take a customer to lunch, leave your pre-conceived notions at home, and he or she really will explain your business to you. You might just learn that you’re not in the business you thought you were in.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Don't Put Off Decisions
“A decision is an action an executive must take when he has information so incomplete that the answer does not suggest itself.”
The message here is clear. Don’t wait until you have all the information you need to make a perfect decision, because you’ll never have it. So leaders need to discipline themselves to recognize when they have assembled as much information and as many opinions as they reasonably can, and that further delay will not produce a better decision.
Decision-making is more art form than science. It mixes data with experience, good thinking with instinct. So don’t allow its imperfect nature cause a thoughtful and deliberate decision-making process slip into procrastination and unnecessary delay. As the folks at Nike would say, “Just do it!”
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
The message here is clear. Don’t wait until you have all the information you need to make a perfect decision, because you’ll never have it. So leaders need to discipline themselves to recognize when they have assembled as much information and as many opinions as they reasonably can, and that further delay will not produce a better decision.
Decision-making is more art form than science. It mixes data with experience, good thinking with instinct. So don’t allow its imperfect nature cause a thoughtful and deliberate decision-making process slip into procrastination and unnecessary delay. As the folks at Nike would say, “Just do it!”
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
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