Message of the Day - Borrowing A Good Idea that Fails

Good Morning,

 

My current read is "The Rudolph Factor" by Cyndi Laurin and Craig Morningstar (http://www.amazon.com/Rudolph-Factor-Finding-Innovation-Business/dp/0470451033), which was recommended by Todd Arwood in his latest monthly newsletter (www.toddarwood.com).

 

One concept which hit very close to home was how often people who copied the successful strategies of others often failed. Over the years, folks have tried to copy my efforts on some of my projects and where I succeeded, they failed, and I have to say that I have failed at times when I copied others as well.

 

For example, I was tasked with building a high performance team. I took the team and built it up to over 16 members with best ever performance through the assignment of projects, empowering team members and getting each of them focused on building the team.

 

Another person attempted to build a similar team, but ran into problems and never got their team off the ground. They used the same techniques I did, projects, empowerment and such, but only superficially. When giving projects, I backed off and let the team member run with it. This other leader kept his hand on a leash.

 

They went through the motions, but did not seem to understand what was used to succeed.

 

What drives this?

 

According to Dr. Laurin and Craig Morningstar, the reason is that while people can copy the process and the techniques, what they often miss is passion and commitment that drove that process and technique.

 

In other words, we can often copy the external actions and even techniques of other people or groups. What we see others doing, though, is often not all there is to it. If that were the case, you could watch someone doing a bomb deactivation, and then try it yourself, duplicating their moves. What do you think your chances of success will be? Especially if the bomb is even slightly different.

 

When copying the technique of others, it then makes sense to find out what are the nuances and background information necessary to get the job done correctly. Going back to the team building example, copying my process would have been more successful if the other manager understood the passion and drive to build each individual team member up, individually, rather than driving overall team strategies.

 

Borrowing a good idea will often fail unless we take the time to look deeper into what makes that idea good in the first place.

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg
Sanford@berenberg.net
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