Practical or possible?

Famous playwright George Bernard Shaw says: “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.”

I can no longer count the number of times I have been invited to speak on the topic of change over the years and the invitations continues to come today. There was a time when big dominating business corporations felt that with their dominance over the market, there was no need for them to change. Although they do not want to admit it, the unspoken thought is that “We are too big to be beaten.” “The closest competitor is at far… far… second.”

A tide of change has swept over this destructive kind of mindset as many of the top industries realize the need to challenge their people to adapt to change, refuse to resist change and to initiate change within their organizations. Old mindsets and old ways of thinking should be challenged.

Every time I get to be invited to speak to companies representing themselves as being the top in their industry I would ask them this question: “If your company happens to be the number 1 company in your industry then what would be your biggest challenge?”

Almost without fail the collective response of my audience is, “To maintain Number 1!”

And immediately I would retort and said, ‘Wrong Answer!’

Suddenly there are frowns breaking out in the faces of my audiences everywhere. And then I explain: “To maintain being Number 1 in your industry simply means protecting the status quo.” It is an old mindset thinking when big business thought they were invincible.

The right answer is not to maintain being number 1 but to widen the lead, enlarge the margin. So let me present the logic behind the statement. “Even if you are number 1 in your industry but your nearest competitor is inching forward and is just a few thousand pesos away from you this may give you the false assurance that you are still number 1, yet you are now in trouble aren’t you?” And here, you see the heads of the leaders nodding in unison while some in the audience would still present a face of disagreement.

Disruption is a common threat to business these days. And this is why successful companies who do not only protect their lead but continue to widen the gap are companies that are agile, entrepreneurial and are fluid to change. Now let me present some disturbing scenarios.

While many managers give platitude to the importance of change and encourage their people to “think out of the box” are the very “boxes” that keep their people from thinking. While they talk about the need to be creative, inventive and innovative they refuse to accept new ideas that sound foreign to them and frown heavily on people who dare challenge conventions.

Some managers are even worst, when these bold souls are perceived as challengers to these managers way of thinking and their ego is affected they would even reprimand these innovative and idealistic contrarians for breaking and violating “Company Policies” and thus are witnesses to managers who behave inconsistently with what they say.

This turns off a lot of creative people such that many good people leave their companies because they could not stand such inconsistency while others become worst; they conform and become part of the old system find themselves hostage to heritage, hopelessly in love with tradition and wonder why the world has passed them by.

This is always a challenge with legacy companies especially when they have tenured managers that have been so comfortable with old ways and old set of thinking.

Now take a look at the business upstarts. They do not have a heritage to bother them, they need to be different in order to disrupt the big ones because they have no choice but to be innovative and to act with speed. This is the only way they can compete against the “Giants.”

Meanwhile, predictably as ever, the industry leaders that are similar to the “Goliaths” in size and resources do traditional battle with their vast money-rich, resource-full “swords and shields” waging war in the market place these “elvish, hobbit-like upstarts with their miniature and limited budget-challenged resource fight like a David with pebbles and a slingshot powered and fueled by a great faith and a firm determination to topple the giant and in many cases do so. There is now a business term for this and it is called: “Disruption.”

This is the reason why the leading incumbents should not be fearful of their equal-sized competitors if they are acting the same way, sluggish, slow, resistant to change and protective of their heritage but they have more plausible reasons to be wary of the hungry, young upstarts whose faith in their ideas and unconventional approaches lead to unpredictable, unfamiliar and blinding speed of unconventional weaponry that might kill them with a critical blow and disrupt their business.

The same principle applies to careers. We need to have the courage to do things differently but most people are afraid of this. Well for one, their bosses or managers may not be supportive or second, the enticement to stay and retreat in the “safety” and “security” of being average or complacency.

For business organizations as well as career people my question now is this: “Are you in the pursuit of that which is possible or are you floating in the realm of what is practical?”

Creativity and productivity are twin pillars required for business and career growth but fresh new ideas and initiatives may initially sound impractical and disturbing. Simply because they may challenge conventions and traditions. But these are possibility projects that may just be the essence of new discoveries and new directions that would secure growth and a healthy future for both business and career.

Daily routine and predictable work provides the comfort of familiarity and they may be perceived as “practical” but they do not bring “possible” into the picture. Do not be comfortable with heritage and traditions. In fact, you should be very nervous if this is the way you run your business and career.

Send these managers to leadership training seminars. Let them mix and learn from other leaders from other industries and hope that they will go back to the workplace with tons of refreshing ideas and more importantly, to be challenged to change and to accept change.

Show more initiative to take on challenges and new jobs and have the boldness to challenge conventions with the prayer that you will be working under a boss who would support your ideas and initiatives.

Be bold, be creative and make things happen. In other words, do not just be “practical” all the time but shoot for the “possible.” This might be the moment of change that you have been dreaming of.

(Experience two inspiring days of leadership training with Francis Kong in his highly acclaimed Level Up Leadership on May 17-18 at Makati, Shangri-La Hotel. For registration or inquiries contact April at +63928-559-1798.)