October 13, 2011
OPEN Forum Message
Affordably Build Your Brand
FedEx Global Brand Management Director Monica Skipper shares a cost-effective way to build a bigger brand for your small business.
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I'm a firm believer in exploiting intelligent constraints to spur creativity and innovation. After all, restraining forces rule, and resources are always finite, so we need to be good at leveraging limits.
The important question is this: Are the limits you face preventing innovation, or enabling it? There's only one right answer. The problem is we often allow tough constraints to defeat us right out of the gate, so we end up downgrading our hopes and goals in order to simply declare victory. Instead of rising to the challenge and summoning our ingenuity, instead of leaning into our discomfort and pushing to the edge of the limits, we succumb to what amounts to preemptive surrender.
And many times we go so far as to impose limits on ourselves that are false, simply to remain comfortable and avoid the tension. Don't believe me? Allow me to run a quick experiment on you. Ready? (Read through the directions first.)
- Stand up, feet planted shoulder width apart, arms straight out at your sides, elbows locked.
- Twist your torso all the way to right as far as you possibly can go.
- Sight down your right arm and mentally mark your stopping point on the wall. Remember that mark.
- Turn back around to face front. Now close your eyes.
- Repeat the exercise, stopping when you think you’ve met your previous stopping point.
- Now...go a little past it. Open your eyes.
My bet is that you surpassed your previous mark. Point being, we generally don’t know what our true potential is until we put our capacity on trial. We all too often unwittingly put the no into innovation before we even give it a go.
My friend and fellow OPEN Forum contributor Stephen Shapiro, who has a new book out called Best Practices Are Stupid, has an exercise that may just revitalize the creative neurons that are blocking us from pursuing what seems impossible but almost never truly is.
"When solving problems," says Steve, "A useful question to ask is, 'What are impossible or impractical solutions?' This question will stretch your thinking. From there, you can then figure out ways of making these impractical solutions, practical."
To encourage this kind of thinking, he suggests using this technique, taken from his book, which can be done in pairs or a small group setting:
1. First, make sure you have a clearly defined statement of the problem, opportunity or challenge. For example: “How might we promote our new Internet-based business?”
2. Now have someone give an whacky solution. (Hint: If it is not “illegal, immoral or impossible,” it is probably not wild enough.) Example: “Rearrange the stars in the sky to spell out our website address.”
3. Next, have the other person (or people) list three attributes they like about that solution. Example: a) Everyone in the world can see it, b) It is permanent, c) It doesn’t adversely impact the environment.
4. Now, have the other person (or people) list three things that would make the solution even better. Example: a) Have it be visible 24 hours a day, not just a night, b) Design it such that you don’t have to look up to see it, c) Create a concept such that people won’t have to remember or write down the website address.
5. Finally, use the the attributes you've identified to either refine the original solution, or to develop different ones. Examples: Attribute 4a (visible 24 hours a day) may lead to the website address being displayed in lights in Times Square, New York City. Or, 24 hours a day and “stars” may get you thinking about movie stars and how they might promote your business. Or attribute 3b (it is permanent) may get you thinking about other permanent things, such as tattoos. What if you created a nicely designed temporary rub-on tattoo? Or get nightclub owners to stamp your web address on the hands of people as they enter.
Steve maintains that this approach works well because the second step allows you to think without constraints, the third step helps validate the original solution and the person who generated it, and the last two steps make the solution practical.
"Instead of just going for what seems practical," writes Steve, "Shoot for the seemingly impossible...and make it possible!"
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