"I know not what the future holds, but I know WHO holds the future."
-anonymous.
STORYLINE by Rajiv Shah
A dear friend of mine is going through trying times, due to the struggling economy and overwhelming feelings of doubt over his future.
His mind is filled with the things that he should be doing, the money he should be making and of past mistakes that are resurfacing old traumas affecting his self-worth. His thinking is affecting his future.
My friend is looking for a crutch. It's easy to do during troubled times. People turn to friends, family, spiritual advisors, therapists, gurus, fad diets, the internet and the list goes on and on... These are all fine and good - I'm not looking to knock what anyone believes - but we are preoccupied with one stop solutions. We hope they will provide answers to make our futures brighter and overcome the mistakes of our past. My friend is no different.
So one day over tea, my friend asked me rather pointedly, “don't you want to do more with yourself?”
“What do you mean,” I asked.
“Well, you're an actor and a writer and you seem to be struggling...”
I nodded, “I am.”
“Well... How do you continue, knowing that you aren't making the money other people are, not... well, don't you aspire to be more than that?”
“I'm happy pursuing it. In the end, I know it's what makes me feel happy and I go through grumps, sure... But, I don't have a question in my mind as to what I should be doing with my life, I'm doing it.”
He grabbed his coffee and looked into it as if his steaming cup of non-fat latte would contain a rebuttal.
I asked my friend, “So here you are, doing everything you thought would bring you money, power, and acceptance. And even if you did have it now, you'd be miserable because you are always looking to the deficiencies, what you don't have, and comparing yourself to what others do. You can't be happy because of that. So you want things from now on to change, to get better? Well, what do you plan to do about it?”
“Well, I don't know... I just think if people wouldn't push me, if I just found the thing that I'm meant to... What I found with my therapist is that if I hadn't been -- ”
I cut him off, “But that's all past. It's over. You've got problems, sure, and you can't get rid of your past. That goes for all of us. However, what are you going to do about it now that you know that?”
He was silent for a moment, put off by my candor, “well this year is supposed to be really good for me. I'm reading this book that says if I...”
He trailed off. I was listening, waiting for him to continue.
“Why are you attacking me,” he asked.
“I'm sorry... I'm just trying to understand your point of view. You want to be so critical of me but when I ask you a simple question, you tell me about your therapist, books, blah, blah, blah...”
“What is wrong with you? Why are you judging me? I don't deserve this type of disrespect!”
“I'm asking you a simple, straight-forward question, what are you going to do about it? What do you want and what you are going to do -- ”
He cut me off, “yeah, I'm a real jerk. I treat everyone like crap. I'm a loser with no friends, aren't I?”
“That's not true. I'm your friend.”
“Yeah, well a friend wouldn't talk to me like that and a real friend would just accept who I am and what I feel.”
To this I didn't know how to respond. He continued, “Do you even know me?”
“How can I when you don't even know yourself?”
REFLECTION
The past is done, over. The future is not here yet, it is waiting for what you decide to do in the present. All we have is today, this moment, and then it is gone. Often we seek answers in things that could be, the things that have happened and in things that we have yet to do. But the answers come from what we do in this moment. What we choose to do is who we are. Character is not defined by talk, research, ideology, and aspirations. It is not contained in a self-help book or in Madonna's new religious beliefs. It comes through action. From you.
So if for example, you are a recovering alcoholic, you're future is determined by the moment in front of you – when the scotch is in your hand and the ice cubes are clinking against the glass. Your future is not by the drinks you had before, by the mistakes that you have committed. Nor is it defined by how long the rest of your life seems in front of you, the thought of a life without a single drink. Your future is determined in that moment, when the drink is resting in your hand, waiting for you to put the drink down or put it to your lips.
When we were in elementary school, we had this teacher who make big slogan to us "Think Health" Every Day We all need to shout with our teacher Think Health. One day after slogan, Saito was still standing and looking at the sky. The teacher asked "What are you doing?" Saito said "I am still thinking health. But I don't know what to do." We were very small but all kids laughing.
Slogan are not good if there are not goals and as Mike talks "Ridiculous Goals." Better to propose some ideas, methods or set goals.
Posted by: Naoko | October 22, 2010 at 05:28 AM
Mike;
To add one more to the four qualities you point out
5. Share examples of innovation from your personal or professional life. I mean Walk The Talk.
So often managers and innovation experts challenge employees or other departments to be innovative but themselves have nothing to show for it.
BJ
Posted by: BJ | October 22, 2010 at 05:48 AM
You should go and see the movie “Secretariat”. The owner sold Stud Fees on the horse to pay $6 million in inheritance taxes. The Stud Fees came with Performance Guarantees so basically the horse had to win the Triple Crown or she would lose it all (and a horse had not won the Triple Crown in a very, very long time as it is nearly impossible since the Belmont is such a long race compared to the Derby and the much shorter Preakness). Yes, the horse had to win, of course, it helped that she had the best horse of all time.
I know, it’s not the same as Apollo 13, but it is a feel good story. In this industry, in this economy, we all need “feel good” stories.
Posted by: East Coast Guy | October 22, 2010 at 05:54 AM
Yes, half the money and double your scope challenge was great innovative idea from management to shift our focus away from negative news. In addition to recognizing what we do in Quality is useful in many fields, It also gave me big confidence (and ofcourse a sense of security in a bad economy) about my Personal Worth.
Posted by: JL | October 22, 2010 at 06:18 AM
Great Reflection.
Posted by: Stephanie | October 22, 2010 at 06:21 AM
The Apollo 13 mission is an extreme example with lives on the line, however, conceptually when management challenges their groups to “ridiculous” goals it’s amazing what creative juices tend to be stirred.
Years ago I worked for a company where Management way of challenging us for ridiculous goals was...(well I better not say this)...Any way let me take a chance.. file xx invention disclosure forms per employee per year. You can guess what happened then. Employees behave how they will get measured. It was a very ridiculous way of setting very ridiculous goals.
Setting Ridiculous Goals is an excellent way to generate innovation as long as those are meaningful goals and connected to the bottom line. Money, Yields,Time, ZERO customer issues....
Posted by: Rami | October 22, 2010 at 06:37 AM
It all began with an iPhone...
March was when my son celebrated his 13th birthday, and I got him an iPhone. He just loved it. Who wouldn't?
I celebrated my birthday in July, and my wife made me very happy when she bought me an iPad.
My daughter's birthday was in August so I got her an iPod Touch.
I casually told this to my friend. I said "Steve Jobs has an eye for innovation."
My friend was responsible for benchmarking for innovation in his company. He said "Eureka", there is some magic in the letter i.
He told my story and shared benchmarks to his Boss.
They made a slogan "i For Innovation."
September came by and one of his employees got his wife an iRon.
It was around then that the fight started......
Posted by: Man from Malaysia | October 22, 2010 at 06:54 AM
Wonder why stocks of companies like Apple get Ridiculous Stock Price where companies making great technology and ridiculous profits get ridiculously low stock price?
It boils down to Innovative People who talk about possibilities, create optimism, consumer desire, excitement and culture of innovation vs Technocrats who imprison them in the sea of data (much of it irrelevant), bog down in technical details vs explaining in simple way how the application will serve useful purpose, take refuge under "technical" caves believing that is the only place to get innovation, label any people and ideas that are drawn from nature, music, movies, history as Philosophers and 50000 feet high ideas. Those technocrats failed to tap into enormous potential of employees and create a culture of Bureaucracy.
If Steve Jobs worked in such environment, he would have never passed Performance Management system and released long ago.
The biggest innovation those technocrats needs is in their mind and thoughts. It is not what you make but what you make possible.
Posted by: Believer from distanced land | October 22, 2010 at 08:35 AM
Mike, thanks for the though provoking article.
Innovation is nurtured, not dictated. In the Apollo 13 incident, failure was not an option. There was a clearly set goal and well defined time period, albeit short time, to perform. The scientists and engineers rose to the challenge and succeeded in their task. To use a cliche, "Necessity is the mother of Invention." In retrospect, could the scientists and engineers innovate on a continuous basis day in and day out, if it were merely dictated and not nurtured? I think not.
Posted by: Quality Guy | October 22, 2010 at 09:40 AM
Mike, thanks for the well written article. Even though the challenges we face may not be life & death as it was for those in Appolo 13 incident, we should still be of mindset of focusing on what "can" be done instead of limiting ourselves with preconceived ideas of what "can not" be done.
Posted by: Boilermaker - CTG | October 22, 2010 at 04:04 PM
For me, too, this movie is particularly memorable. The engineers who thought of the solution to save the astronauts' lives must have been working under incredible tension... usually not conducive to creativity. There is probably an incredibly great fear of failure... but in the light of necessity it can eventually give way to great innovation.
I once attended a corporate team building seminar, where we were given a small red ball among a group of about 50 employees. Then we were asked to clock the time it took for each employee to touch the ball. How long would it take? Before we were ready it took some planning and discussion. Who would hold the ball? How would we coordinate the touching so that everybody didn't get in everyone else's way, etc. We defaulted to the manager, who held the ball. It took something like 25seconds (0.5sec per employee on average... not bad we thought).
Then the trainer said, "OK, now you have 10 minutes to come up with a plan to cut that time in half". We were doubtful, after all ten minutes is not very long and 25sec seemed like a pretty good time after all. But we dug in and tried a couple of quick concept experiments. In short we were able to cut the time to better than half. I remember being particularly amazed. Sometimes it really is possible to cut the Gordian knot and achieve ridiculous goals by revolutionary methods. We have to be willing to take a risk sometimes, and throw out our accumulated knowledge.
Posted by: micro CEO | October 22, 2010 at 04:25 PM
Thanks for sharing this, I still remember this movie. It is true that the pessimistic way of thinking may take away the chance of being success. We should watch carefully.
Posted by: JD (China) | October 23, 2010 at 04:14 AM
This guy obviously didn’t focus on what “could not” be done. Simply amazing video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZ0gxzy6U0I&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Posted by: CG | October 23, 2010 at 04:23 AM
Mike-
Well said. Often we approach problems from a "that's how we solve it around here" point of view. It takes leadership (from a manager or an individual contributor - either can do it) to take a step back, look at the problem in a different way, and come up with out-of-the-box but usually simple solution.
Thanks for this reflection!
Posted by: Mike Goodner | October 25, 2010 at 08:45 AM
I really like the movie "Apollo 13" and have watched it multiple times because it is a compelling story that contains so many leadership and innovation examples.
STAY FOCUSED ON THE OBJECTIVE:
Gene Kranz stating that the Apollo 13 mission has changed from "landing on the moon" to "bringing the astronauts back home alive".
After watching them gaze longingly at the Moon's surface, Jim Lovell asks his fellow astronauts what are their intentions, and Lovell stating that he wants to go home.
ACCOUNTABILITY:
While talking to Ken Mattingly, Jim Lovell stated that it was his decision to replace Mattingly (due to measles concern) with Jack Swigert as command module pilot for the Apollo 13 mission.
INNOVATION:
Ken Mattingly going "outside the box" to find more power for the Odyssey command module start-up procedure.
Gene Kranz saying "I don't care what anything was designed to do, I want to know what it can do" when rallying his team to find solutions to achieve the new mission objective.
Posted by: California Guy | October 25, 2010 at 11:55 AM