Albert Einstein had a definition of what constituted lunacy attributed to him that is as critically relevant today then when it was stated in the last century. His deceptively simple validation of lunacy was when someone does the same exact thing in the same exact way and does it again and again, but expects to achieve a different result.
Last years economy was the perfect storm of failed financial policies, job loss, housing problems, and pessimistic consumer confidence. Projections based on past results were most often meaningless. Yet, there is a false comfort in the continued pursuit of doing things in the same way. But, the consequences of sticking solely to what is in your business comfort zone, constrains you to become captive to a reality that you constructed around yourself. Success then presumes that the future is always exactly like the past, but that presumption is dangerously inaccurate.
General motors (GM) was for many decades the largest automobile manufacturer in the world, but management’s inability to change and stubborn adherence to anachronistic policies brought it to bankruptcy. Businesses, large and small, have a difficult enough job staying alive. According to the Economist magazine, of the 500 biggest companies in America in 1980, less than 200 existed twenty years later. The Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that over 400,000 businesses closed in just the first half of 2009. So be happy you are still in business, but realize that future achievements will require that you don’t simply self impose the same methodology of the past to the future with expectations of a different result.
How then should you approach 2010 and beyond? One of the most important admissions you should make is that you need to look at your business creatively and critically not just routinely based on past measurements. While the fundamentals of running a business, such as financials, product knowledge, inventory, personnel, sales and marketing are essential, they won’t tell you what you are missing because you won’t have knowledge of what you don’t know. While you will have the quantitative results, which most of us feel secure with, only analytical thinking skills will address the multiplicity of complex issues that impact your business now and in the future.
In ancient Greece, the world’s most famous philosopher, Socrates, employed in his teachings a method of forcing his students to utilize critical thinking skills by questioning their assumptions without advancing his own judgments. His inquisitive nature sharpened their critical thinking by making them seek the how, what, why and when behind what they proposed.
Thomas Friedman’s book, The World is Flat, has numerous references to the advantages of obtaining different points of view for the same problem. Analytical thinkers realize that the diverse experiences of others are a source for valuable insights to change. Creative thinking must be a compliment to critical thinking. You must be able to see opportunities when others may see problems or only a continuation of the same items that give you the same result. For many decades, music industry CD’s were primarily distributed in music stores, but with the creation of downloadable software in 2004, CD sales will be eclipsed by downloaded music by 2012.
Working smarter is a term that is commonly used and can be applied to your business to begin the process of introducing the changes necessary to derive a different result. You will need to employ the items discussed and determine what you can affect. Here is how I suggest you do this:
- Overcome the fear of change
- Create a realistic, simple work plan with small controllable segments derived from the results of your critical and creative thinking (quality not quantity counts)
- Put due dates on each segment of the plan
- Tell people who can help you and you trust what your plans are
- Cultivate the on-going habit of doing and evaluating each segment of the plan and adjust based on results
- Don’t be afraid to fail
- Start today
While realizing that substituting the comfort zone we have for known results with the attributes of critical and creative thinking, by questioning assumptions, seeking varied perspectives and seeing potential is difficult, it is essential to avoid trouble and improve your business results. Also, Einstein would be very happy.
Richard A. Mitsoda
Managing Director
Maduro Travel Ltd.
Maduro Dive Fanta-Seas