Challenge the box

Have you ever come across managers who would say, “You need to think outside the box!”? Those managers believe that change and innovation are important. So why don’t the desired changes take place?

Here’s the reality: some brave souls will take on the challenge and be radical in their approaches to problem solving – then their managers and the HR will reprimand them for violating rules. What some managers say and how they behave can be totally inconsistent. Many managers who require their people to “think out of the box” are the very “boxes” that keep their people from thinking. While these managers mouth platitudes about the need to be creative, inventive and innovative, they frown on people who dare challenge conventions and, God forbid, their way of thinking.

In my seminars, I ask the participants, “Is change important?” Everyone will say “Yes.” I’ll follow it up with another question: “Do the managers in your business organization love change?” Here, I begin to see sheepish smiles. The braver among them would say “No,” while the others who prefer to play it safe would refuse to comment. Then I’d say, “The answer to that of course is YES! Your managers love change – Only if the change comes from them!” And everybody would laugh at the ridiculousness of the idea of people harping on the need for change, but fighting change off when they’re required to conform to it.

There are also some companies who mouth platitudes about being innovative while being hostage to heritage and hopelessly in love with tradition. And they wonder why the world has passed them by. This is typical of established and legacy companies. They uphold that rules are important, and expect everyone to follow. So even if people are persuaded to “think outside the box,” they get led to stay “inside the box.”

Not so with upstarts. They try to be different because they have to. They have to challenge the giants. They have no choice. While the money-full, resource-rich Goliath-ish companies make war in the marketplace with their swords and shields, the tiny, budget-challenged “David” upstarts come with a slingshot and measly pebbles… and a great faith that, with their ideas, they will defeat the giants. And many of them actually do.

Incumbents shouldn’t be afraid of equal-sized competitors. They should be fearful of the unknown, unpredictable and brave upstarts whose faith in their ideas and unconventional weaponry could kill them with a blow they neither anticipated nor imagined.

Similarly, in our careers, we need to have the courage to do things differently.

People tend to seek approval from those around them. This is how we’ve been hard-wired. Most people are afraid to take risks. They retreat to the safety of their comfort zone without realizing that in a world where change happens at a ruthless pace, the comfort zone offers the least amount of safety. Others have given up hope for the best. They’re just doing their best to avoid the worst. They hide in the “safety” and “security” of the average!

But creative people challenge convention with their brilliant, radical and transformative ideas. They’re not worried about hurting other people’s feelings because they believe that change can be for the better. Sometimes, however, they’re gravely misunderstood, and they get hurt in the process.

Seek for personal growth. Read books. Study. Attend seminars. Even the non-company-sponsored ones. Invest in learning. Be ready and willing to take creative risks, but only those that are legal and moral. George Bernard Shaw said, “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

(Attend the fund raising seminar “We Will Rise!”, a whole-day event featuring eight of the top speakers in the country. Learn, give and share, as ALL proceeds will go to the typhoon victims of Yolanda, on December 10, 9AM to 5PM at CCF Makati, A Venue. For further inquiries, contact Inspire at 09158055910, or call 632-6310912 for details.)