4-5-10 Never Let 'Em See You Sweat

Well, not exactly.

But first, I digress.

One of the great things about research, specifically research via surveys, is that you get a wealth of information. One of the downsides of the structured PhD thesis is that you don’t always get to use or share every shred of this most valuable information.

In going back through the original survey responses, I was reminded that there is some very interesting information, from very experienced executives, that hadn’t yet found an outlet.

Well, tada! Here is the outlet……

So what did I mean by the title? It is actually an outgrowth of one of the survey responses. Which was, “never show you think something is impossible”. And why do you suppose that my survey participant said that? Well, of course, I can’t know for sure, but I’m thinking it is a pretty good bet that the reason is because you are the executive!

Think about it this way. You are in the aerospace industry and your company is in the process of designing a brand new material that will revolutionize air transport. Instead of metal, you will be designing and building planes out of composites. Don’t you imagine that oh, twenty or so years ago, someone was thinking (if not saying) that it would be impossible? And yet, we have just seen the first mostly-composite airplane start its test cycles.

In all likelihood, during the last twenty years, there have been executives that thought a composite airplane was impossible, but charged ahead anyway. And in doing so, what was deemed impossible became a “maybe” and then became a possible and then finally, became a reality.

The point here is that when your team (or your boss, for that matter) comes to you with an idea or an assignment that you believe is impossible…. Don’t just blurt out your view. Let it simmer. Let it develop. Work from angles that you’ve never used. After all, this is how innovation begins --- with the impossible.

Of course, you have to balance that nurturing of the idea with the reality of your current business. You can’t pour all of your money and time into something that won’t pay off for 30 years. But you can keep feeding the idea with small amounts in order to see where it will take you and your company in the future.

Cheers!