Dare to disrupt, dare to be different

Sharing Experience: Graham Lawes, Tinderbox

Achieving step change growth begins with understanding and defining the purpose of your business – in other words, why it exists. Once the purpose is clearly defined in a manner that is easily understood by all stakeholders, then you can begin to imagine what the future could look like. This plays into people’s hearts and minds; it will harness their passion and tap into their imagination.

The clear picture you create will then direct the plan of action required by your team. The type of action steps they will come up with, the knowledge they will seek, and the collective thinking they will use, will be directly related to that vision of the future and the size of the goal that is pictured in people’s minds.

Ideas and implementation

A key step in achieving significant growth is to harness know-how. It is critical to understand that know-how is not simply knowledge, it is the ability to apply knowledge. Often this exists within your team, but know-how can also be acquired from outside the business and from other sectors.

Henry Ford and his team reduced the time to complete a chassis from 728 minutes to only 93 by taking concepts from watchmakers, gun makers, bicycle makers, and meat packers, mixing them with their own ideas and developing a moving assembly line for automobiles. Now that’s a step change!

Brainstorming works but only if it is properly facilitated. Good brainstorming requires being non-judgemental and allowing the free flow of ideas. It enables people’s creative thinking and when you have a team full of know-how, then those ideas can be transformed into practical solutions and actions.

Creating an environment of ‘it might be possible’ will engender powerful mindsets. One of the problems with people – especially experienced people – is that they think they know what cannot be done. Remove that barrier and look at how it might just be possible.

Often the missing part of setting goals is how they will be achieved. Activity can be managed, results cannot, so focus on developing the ‘how we will do it’.

Move with the times

Remember, the world is changing all the time and if you do what you have always done, you will get what you have always got.

Henry Ford became undone in the late 1920s when he continued to believe that the Model T was the car most people wanted. He ignored the growing popularity of more expensive but more stylish and comfortable cars and would not listen to other Ford executives when they said it was time for a new model. Once you start the journey of being innovative and being a disruptor, you need to keep moving because business is an infinite game.