We work together because collectively we are better than when we work individually. Ideas need to be managed with respect, openness, and open debate.
Our mantra at T3 is the idea of “constant forward motion.” We continually ask ourselves to gain forward motion in all things. Where can we improve? What expertise do we need to add? What capabilities do we develop next? Constant forward motion is about the big stuff. And the very small stuff.
Ask yourself. Ask your teams for specific examples of how you have moved your organization forward. Do it every month. Then every week. Then every day. Do it often enough and it becomes an organizational instinct.
Virtually everything is an opportunity. It may look like a problem, and it may be. But usually behind that problem is a tiny little opportunity to improve. Learn to see the world from this perspective. Always, always look for the upside in everything and believe that each little thing can be put together in ways that become wonderful things.
This is powerful stuff. It’s one part curiosity and one part optimism. I have seen us take a simple idea like the house slippers we created for UPS and turn it into a multimillion-dollar business.
Our culture has evolved to cherish, protect, and enhance ideas. We basically have four steps:
Success is not always a straight line. The solution to a problem or opportunity is often not clear. Real leaders understand how to work through this.
When you face ambiguity, when the path forward is not clear, the best way forward is with straw dogs. You come up with a potential solution to the problem—it can be thoughtful and compelling, or it can be funny and whimsical. It does not matter. Ask everyone on the team for their straw dogs. It is OK because they are just straw and no one is going to get hurt.
What you will see is that people will start shooting at some of the dogs and others will be left standing. Do it over and over again, and the solution will emerge. When you are looking at a blank whiteboard, you have nothing to react to and people get stuck. They are invaluable because they give the team something to react to. Reacting to a vacuum does not provide much insight. Put up straw dogs, shoot some down, and the ones left standing are potential solutions to the problem.
Put up some straw dogs today.
Managing ideas requires laying down some cultural principles, some ground rules. These are the steps to developing ideas.
When it is time to begin evaluating the ideas, put them up on the wall and discuss them. See what resonates. Look for opportunities to build on them. Then ask everyone to vote on the best ones using colored stickers. No discussion should be allowed during this step. Then evaluate and iterate and keep going until you are done.
By the way, this is an incredible exercise to teach your kids how to work as a team!
Pick the top contenders and debate the merits of each. Narrow them down to three different ideas everyone would be comfortable presenting to the client. This requires real thoughtfulness. You are about to release the ideas into the wild. Never include one you do not believe in, because without fail, that is the one that will get selected.
Let the best idea win.
Instead of starting new projects with written proposals, elaborate project plans, and detailed estimates, go prototype it. Just go make it. Don’t talk about it. Just do it. This focus on action and making changed my business. We are often able to put our ideas in the hands of our clients and show them how it actually works. We get amazing reactions because they can see the power of it, even if it is not perfectly designed and executed yet. Powerful stuff.
Prototype. Don’t pontificate.
In the business world an adjacent possible is something that was not apparent before, but suddenly emerges and can be combined with another element to create something entirely new. The classic example is when Johannes Gutenberg in the fifteenth century took existing ideas like movable type, ink, paper, and the concept of a press (for making wine) and put them together and built something that never existed before: the first printing press.
Look for new ways to combine ideas. Teach your teams to mash up different technologies. Be creative and look beyond the obvious. Ideas come from curiosity.
One of our executives at T3 told me that she wakes up every morning curious. And that is a wonderful thing. Shouldn’t we all?