Thinking Outside The Box Is Just The Beginning

Another half-truth (See previous post on Why Learning From Your Mistakes Is Not Enough) about decision-making being promoted is “thinking outside the box.” Businesses want people who can think outside the existing structures, culture, and worldviews that govern the organization in the belief that such thinking will yield results that the firm can successfully exploit. Such entrepreneurial thinking is seen as allowing a firm to respond more nimbly to competition and not find it falling behind. The business can reinvent itself to meet the ever-changing environment and improve its chances of prolonging its existence. But is being able to “think outside the box” sufficient? Is that all that is required of the decision-maker? It would seem that the ability to think outside the box alone will not ensure success. All it may produce is a lot of ideas of unknown quality that the business, used to one way of operating, is ill-equipped to evaluate and successfully implement. What is required is that the process of thinking outside the box provide new structures, worldviews, and processes by which the ideas can be evaluated as to their quality and how best to implement them for maximum success. To construct a new box, in other words, in which to successfully move the business forward. Then you have to be able to think outside that structure for the inevitable turning of the cycle to a new environment. It is a constant state of destruction, construction, destruction, and on ad infinitum. A good analogy might be the relationship between a hitter and a pitcher over their opposing careers. When the batter gains the edge over the pitcher, the pitcher has to figure out a way to adjust his pitching to get ahead again. It is then incumbent upon the batter to adjust to the new pitching style to avoid striking out. As they face each other in a game and over the course of a season, they are constantly reworking their strategy to stay one step ahead of their competitor. Then they start all over again the next year. The danger of creating new structures is that, successful though they may be, they tend to focus thinking into the new paradigm and away from new ideas. The natural tendency is to push forward into new territory gradually and settle down to enjoy the fruits of one’s labors. If you do that, however, you risk being passed by those more willing to push into terra incognito and explore all its potential riches and dangers. Unlike the common wisdom that settling down and building a life in one place is the best course, modern businesses must be more like Daniel Boone, moving further into the wilderness as the neighborhood fills up. Modern businesses must be Pioneers of the Future and not Builders of the Pyramids. Apple may be the best representation of this phenomenon today, which is what has made them so successful. It is also why Apple takes a hit whenever the market thinks they’ve run out of new, transformative ideas. Apple cannot rest on its past successes – just ask Motorola, Nokia, or Blackberry if that is a viable strategy. Thinking outside the box is not always rewarded, though, as Microsoft can attest. Trapped by its legacy programs and customers unwilling to make the leap with it, the attempts by Microsoft to bust out of the Windows box have been largely unsuccessful. Microsoft, in order to break free, would have to do something entirely different, a leap forward past itself and its rivals. Depending on how and what it did, Microsoft could keep its legacy products or cannibalize the old lines as the new product takes over. If they kept the existing products there would have to be a commitment to upgrading and improving them to keep the old customers while the new line attracted different ones. Cannibalizing the old line may be the best long term strategy, but is fraught with the danger that the new line is less successful and leave Microsoft worse off rather than better. The push for new modes of thought and approaches to decision-making carries with it the danger that they will not completely address the full series of challenges facing a business today. Even if implemented with the best of intentions and to the fullest extent possible, if these prescriptions are not complete they will at best buy time and at worst lead to spectacular failure. There are no magic bullets to ensure success. It takes hard work, discipline, and not a little daring to meet the challenges of the current and future competitive environment. Any new system or approach to decision-making must be examined carefully for incompleteness as well as to its perceived efficacy.