Early in my career, I led a small team of 20-somethings at an Internet start-up. We were all so young and inexperienced that we truly didn’t know any better… and that turned out to be pretty powerful. We were so green that we didn’t know that some things couldn’t be done and, without that mental roadblock barring our way, we figured out ways to make things happen.
Let me repeat that but in a different way. I propose that by simply not acknowledging that something is impossible, you leave yourself open to innovation.
How many times have we doubted ourselves only to see those doubts come true? “I’ll never make that shot” or “They won’t want to go on a date with me.” It’s the self-fulfilling prophecy. If you can leap past that and approach a problem from a new perspective, you may well be surprised at what you come up with.
The particular “roadblock” that inspired this post’s title had to do with a new product we were launching. We approached management with our proposal for a marketing campaign that we believed would garner the attention of clients and the press alike. After our big presentation, we ended up with just 10% of the budget we had asked for.
I remember huddling with the team after our meeting with management. Everyone looked depressed as they were starting to think about what we would have to cut from our well thought out plans. It was then that inspiration hit.
I sat up, looked around and told them that it was now the future. They looked at me strangely but I continued. “Today’s the one year anniversary of that horrible meeting where the president only gave us that small amount of money to launch our product. But we pulled it off. It’s now the number 1 seller for the company. But remind me… how exactly did we get here?”
Thankfully, my team went along with my goofy premise and within minutes they were filling in the back story, taking the plans we’d originally come up with and modifying them to fit within the new budget reality. They were hesitant at first but I kept cheering them on with “Oh yeah, that’s right” and “That was a great idea!” as enthusiastically as I could. We still had some refinements to do but the important thing was that they started to see what was possible again and we ended up with a very successful launch.
Sometimes, the way to get past a roadblock is to jump over it so you see the problem from a different perspective… one where you know that you’ll get past it. So, what if the next time you find yourself continually hitting that brick wall, simply try side-stepping it and work your way back from the reality where you want to end up and see what happens?
I’m pulling for you.
Chris
What If... 