Doing something different
Alan Draper was one of the co-founders of Virgin Records. When he was asked in an interview why the company was so successful he said, ‘We were a team of people all motivated by a common goal, to do something different.’
When leaders make the results the target, there’s a good chance they will miss it. Whereas when they make ‘doing something different’ the target, they empower people to creatively find new, better ways of doing what they do now.
That’s not to say that they throw out everything that works, rather they deliberately create a culture that seeks continual improvement through creativity. This increases engagement, productivity and innovation and the chances of hitting targets are greatly enhanced.
When leaders settle for maintaining the status quo and don’t challenge the norms (or people!) that are holding them back, then they create the conditions where the culture will stagnate and the results will do likewise.
