GET OUT!
Why do so many high-powered business meetings take place on the eighteenth hole of a world-class golf course or thirty thousand feet above the fairway in a richly appointed private jet? Because traditional executives love to demonstrate their mastery by dazzling colleagues, costumers, and investors with their position and success.
The reality, though, is that in a world of disruptive innovation, where the premium is on continuous creativity, the enclaves of the corporate elite are more prisons then perks. They not only keep the rank and file (and all of their ideas) out, they keep leaders in (and closed off from a universe of opportunities to learn and grow).
There’s a simple fix: Get out. Seriously, Get out! Get up from behind your desk and get out of your office.
This isn’t about taking a vacation or “management by walking around”.
This isn’t about spending time on the shop floor, listening to your costumers, or clocking the competition.
Those are all important activities, but they’re not how the future is created. You have to go much further than that. If you want to do anything new in the marketplace, you’ve got to get as serious, rigorous, and creative about renewing yourself as any other aspect of your business. So get out.
GET OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE
You may be the master of your domain in your office, but chances are you’re also a victim of your mastery. Too often in the business world, we preserve and revere experience when we should be challenging and renewing it. Go out and get some in-experience. Go back to square one. Put yourself in a position to discover something new. How? Send an invitation.
In 2004, advertising powerhouse Wieden+Kennedy launched a pioneering advertising school called “12” with a classified ad headlined: TALENTED/DIRECTIONLESS, WITH $/TIME TO SPARE?
Twelve lucky, brilliant misfits spent a year inside the agency. It’s an ongoing experiment in inviting naïveté, passion, and new talent into the organization. The students learn advertising – and their teachers learn to see with fresh eyes.
Of course, you don’t have to be young to think young. Schedule a playdate – with yourself. Pick up a new tool (video camera, paintbrush, spatula) and use it without an agenda. Try something you’ve never done before (plant a garden, give a speech) without judgment.
GET OUT OF YOUR FRAME OF REFERENCE
The best way to open your mind is to apply a jolt of unfamiliarity. Yes, theis is hard for any grown-up, and especially tough if you live in the managerial bubble. That’s why you have to make it a personal goal to seek out new sources, mix up your milieus, and re-arrange your references. Go on a field trip. Go somewhere you’ve never been before: a skateboard park, a flea market, a town council meeting. Think contrast. If you live in the suburbs, spend an afternoon exploring a burstling, diverse metropolitan neighbourhood. Think about engaging senses you rarely use. If your work is highly visual, go to a chamber music performance and close your eyes. Let your questions lead. If you’re interested in honing your powers of observation, tour a forenses lab. Go out of your way. Build time for wandering into any trip. Watch a movie in a foreign language. Eat street food. Take public transportation.
GET OUT OF YOUR SKIN
It’s not enough to mix it up with the rich resources available out in the world – you also have to stir up the passions, dreams, and projects lying dormant inside yourself. We all lug around an accumulation of fantasy vocations and achievements. Pick one and start moonlighting. The head of strategy at a major design firm gave up her weekends (and kept up her fifty-hour workweeks) for eighteen months to complete a gruelling degree at a top cooking school. Now her food fantasy is a real-life opportunity to work with one of the most celebrated chefs in the country. But following your fantasy doesn’t have to mean stretching yourself thin or switching careers – it can mean jump-starting a project (authorized or not) that rewrites your job description. The most progressive organizations understand the value of cultivating these personal passions. Exhibit A: Google’s policy of encouraging its brilliant engineers to spend 20 percent of their work time on projects of their own choosing (which often evolve into new features and product lines for the company).
None of these are extracurricular activities. They’re at the heart of growth. Have you ever noticed that the most remarkable, fascinating, and successful people and companies don’t actually work on becoming remarkable, fascinating and successful? No, they spend their time and energy seeking out other remarkable, fascinating, and successful people, places, and experiences. Their curiosity is rivalled only by their humility. Their driving force is one of exploration: They’re willing to risk discomfort, to ask unanswerable questions, to start over. The good news for all of us is that it’s never too late for that. And it’s as simple at this: Don’t be a corporate shut-in, marking time until your time is up. The future is not lurking under your desk – it’s outside.
So get up and get out!
GET OUT!
Seth Godin was vice-president of direct marketing for Yahoo! until the year 2,000. Afterwards, he founded Yoyodine, the first company to create direct marketing online promotions and advertising campaigns, which he helped become the pioneer of permission marketing before selling it to Yahoo! Likewise, he has published a number of best-sellers, such as Permission Marketing, Unleashing the Ideavirus, The Big Red Fez, Survival is Not Enough, Purple Cow, Free Prize Inside, and his last work All Marketers are Liars, which is now on sale. To contact Seth Godin, please send him an e-mail to the following address Seth@permission.com.
