Be Different or be dead

May 20, 2019

6 daring things brilliant ‘weirdos’ do that people in crowds can’t

Source: Unsplash

6 daring things brilliant ‘weirdos’ do that people in crowds can’t.

When someone distances themselves and steps outside of the crowd to do something different they standout.

They are noticed because they don’t conform to what people are normally exposed to — they don’t fit the mould of commonality. And they are special in some way that others are not.

What do these people do to distinguish themselves in the eyes of others from the masses of people who all blend in to one another?

1. They don’t care

... about expected norms.

As opposed to being influenced by the majority opinion they choose to be guided by a different set of standards.

My observation is that this trait is not a learned one but rather an innate instinctive leaning to not give a sh** about what people expect and to constantly push for the opposite to what is expected.

They ask “Why not?” constantly when an alternative to a commonly held thought or opinion is posed. Instead of going with the flow, their natural instinct is to breakaway and pursue a different direction.

“We’ve always done it this way” doesn’t wash with these folks; it provokes them and in fact fuels their energy to push back on the crowd mentality. They see continuing the momentum of past decisions as the reason so many problems exist in society today.

2. They hang out

... with weird people.

Like minded people tend to cluster; so these people join with other breakaway thinkers and doers to form their own tribes. Ironically they dislike the common crowd but love to create their own tribe of weirdos.

And they are attracted to places and experiences that are frequented by the different crowd. For example, you wouldn’t be surprised to see them having a burger at the Heart Attack Grill in Vegas just to witness their brethren participate in a crazy (and unhealthy) experience.

3. They are compelled

... to present a different point of view.

Compliance with crowd-think is simply not on their radar; their persona has the step out rather than a fit in trait.

Whereas the masses might advocate throwing more money at healthcare, for example, these people might suggest that the system delivering healthcare be fixed — re-engineered — first.

They would argue that it makes little sense to apply additional resources to a system that is inherently flawed; it’s wasteful of tax dollars. And of course they question everything; it’s their way of formulating an alternative point of view to something that is accepted by the crowd.

4. They don’t follow rules

... and their school report cards commented on this aspect of their class performance.

Remarks like:
“Roy is constantly challenging how things are done and distracts the rest of the class”, or “Roy on occasion breaks the school rules and doesn’t seem to understand that students are expected to conform with school policies” are ascribed to them constantly by the school establishment.

If a rule doesn’t enable logical behaviour, they resist it vehemently and press for its elimination or at least that flexibility be applied to bend it in certain circumstances. And killing dumb rules is their mantra to which they invest much of their emotional energy.

5. They make mistakes

... and are noticeable because they are proud of the number of mistakes they make.
They are naturally unafraid of taking a risk; they believe that risk taking is a necessary prerequisite to achieving remarkable progress.

And the corollary they have to this is that a high level of performance can be maintained only if someone tries a lot —> the more tries —> the more mistakes —> the more real change is accomplished.

6. They are insanely

... curious.

It’s what feeds their incessant drive to do what they do and stand apart from everyone else.
I think it’s a bit of a science gene that these special folks possess. They need to understand how things work and why things are the way they are; it’s the fuel that enables the to think differently and do different things.

Face value accounts for very little to the different ones; they accept nothing at face value but need to dive deep to know what’s really going on.
They view the current base of academic knowledge as their fodder for change.

Someone who’s not like the others loves the fact that they are slightly distant but realizes that it’s sometimes hard because the pressures to conform and NOT standout are so enormous.

Thankfully they are strong enough and persistent enough to be who they are — special, quirky, remarkable, weird, different, unmatchable, an ONLY one, distinguished and brave.

We need them.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 5.20.19 at 04:23 am by Roy Osing
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April 22, 2019

Why are great leaders close to people on the frontline who execute?

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Why are great leaders close to people on the frontline who execute?

There is a huge misconception that remarkable leaders are separate from the common folk in an organization; that they exist in rarefied air that only the great consume.

Don’t be fooled.

Pundits push the view that distinctive leadership is extremely complicated to achieve given the knowledge silos a leader must be proficient in.

Gifted leadership is much more than being expert in the tools of the trade such as strategic business planning, risk management, organizational theory or interpersonal relations.

Yes, you have to understand the basics, but they alone will not place you in the ‘the chosen few’ of leaders.

They are merely table stakes to be in the leadership game.

My experience is that standout leaders are special due to their common folk attributes, in particular connecting with others in a casual way with honesty and integrity.

Leaders who can ‘see’ others; understand their needs and wants and are motivated by a strong desire to help them in any way they can.

Throughout my career I was pressed to conform to the standard leadership practices promulgated by experts who believed that if I followed traditional thinking more closely, I would be a better leader.

I refused. It didn’t make sense to me given the ‘in the trenches’ execution challenges facing the organization to be successful.

Organizations perform well when they execute flawlessly; people performing their assigned roles brilliantly to deliver expected results.

Achieving amazing results doesn’t exist within a strategic plan or conflict management theory.

Rather than go deeper and learn more about traditional practices, I chose to go broader and add a behavioural dimension that I believed would make the difference for the organization.

My approach was simple: to listen to the people doing the work and try to find a way to help them; to make their organizational life easier.

My game plan was to build a team that was unmatched in their ability to execute.

My style was very informal and I was approachable.

I focused more of my efforts than my peers in the workplace to understand and solve the problems preventing people from doing their jobs effectively; to break down barriers and grunge that impeded effective execution.

The upside — my teams consistently punched above its weight; the downside - my personal currency took a hit because my ‘common folk’ approach was deemed inappropriate by some old school executives.

And if I had to do it over again, I wouldn’t change a thing.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 4.22.19 at 04:34 am by Roy Osing
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April 8, 2019

Why gulf in class organizations dominate best in class ones

I’m a huge football fan (soccer to you North Americans) and live to sing You’ll Never Walk Alone and watch the Reds put me through agony every game they play.

Recently the Reds defeated Bayern Munich in a Champions League match 3-1 to earn the right to progress to the quarter finals.

Of course the Liverpool media were all over the win, and a comment by the Liverpool Echo’s James Pearce caught my eye.

He labelled the Red’s domination of their opponent this way: “Liverpool played with real maturity and control— rock solid defensively, tireless in midfield and packing a punch going forward. There was a gulf in class.”

Gulf in class

What an effective way to describe the way they beat their competitors. It wasn’t that the Reds performed better than Bayern; it was more that they completely dominated them in an incomparable way.

Liverpool outmatched Bayern and we’re in a completely different category than their opponents; it wasn’t an incremental difference between the two, rather it was a huge gulf.
I got to thinking about how gulf in class is such a great way to describe an organization that was in a different class than their competitors. One that was unmatched by any other; one that was separate from the herd.

About the gulf, Jerry Garcia of The Grateful Dead said it best: “You don’t want to be merely the best of the best, you want to be the ONLY one that does what you do.”

How can you develop a gulf in class — a chasm — between yourself and your closest rival? There’s no silver bullet — no one thing — you can do; rather it’s several actions taken simultaneously that act synergistically and in unison to produce consistently amazing performance.

Gulf in class organizations distinguish themselves from the best in these 5 ways.

Leadership

Gulf in class organizations have amazing leaders who are dedicated in mind, spirit and body to serving every member of their team based on their individual unique needs.
They are revered by their team and will do anything for them. In the face of criticism, they support their people; they take the heat when team members have an off day.
Their end game is to help develop each team member as a human being not just a player.

Family

Gulf in class organizations aren’t organizations at all, they’re a family and everything they do is to build and maintain it.

“When I die, don’t bring me to the hospital. Bring me to Anfield. I was born there and will die there.” — Steven Gerrard, Liverpool Football Club

They represent the ultimate of inclusivity in the truest sense of the word.
EVERYONE is emotionally invested in the organization and committed to their success: employees, customers, stakeholders — all those who touch them.

Patience

Gulf in class organizations are patient with the intent to build themselves to win in the long term. They aim to outperform their opponents over the long haul accepting that short term blips along the way are just a fact of life.
They have a long term plan, they understand the competencies they need to achieve it and they consistently keep working hard to achieve their long term goals.

They live the “form is temporary; class is permanent” mantra focussing on what is needed to create something that lasts forever rather than on transitory short term performance.

Loyalty

Gulf in class organizations focus their energy on creating undying loyalty rather than enhancing employee engagement.
They understand that loyalty is a two-way street requiring the organization to earn the right to ask for the support of their family members. They extend a hand and people respond emotionally to perform to the best of their ability.

Giving

Gulf in class organizations give unselfishly to the communities where they do business.
The family “shows up” at local events to help those in need; employees volunteer their time and expect little in return.

Community involvement is a high priority in a gulf organization. It is viewed as a strategic program that commands a non-trivial portion of their annual operating budget.
It is included as a fundamental value of the organization and has specific objectives along with customer focus and revenue growth.

Gulf in class represents the ultimate expression of competitive advantage, but is rarely seen due to the incredible investment that it requires. But to those families like the Liverpool Football Club who have chosen to follow this path, success awaits.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 4.8.19 at 04:19 am by Roy Osing
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March 11, 2019

Why deleting old stuff is better than creating new stuff

Source: Unsplash

Why deleting old stuff is better than creating new stuff.

Innovation is always associated with coming up with new solutions to existing problems; the definition of the word confirms it: innovation is described as ‘the introduction of something new; a new idea, method, or device’.

If you are successful creating and introducing newness, you are a respected member of the creativity crowd, and the rewards follow your achievements.
Adding stuff and consuming additional resources gets the attention, and enhancing value is defined by introducing new products and services and adding new technical functionality.
And in fact many organizations reinforce this bias by having entire teams dedicated to new product and service development.

The flip side of the coin, however, ‘gets no respect’. This is the side of the coin that seeks to removes stuff — takes stuff away, cuts, and deletes. The flip side of the coin has DNA based on the need to subtract not add.

We should start to recognize the importance of deleting the no-longer-relevant by changing the old school definition of innovation.

New school innovation

New school innovation definition: ”The introduction of something new or the elimination of something deemed no longer relevant; a new or obsolete idea, method, or device.”

This new definition of innovation is based on the principle of creating additional value in whatever fashion is appropriate at the time.

And deleting the no-longer-relevant adds HUGE value and yet it’s not on a par with its add-the-new cousin.

Take a look at your own personal life. How much junk do you have in your closet? How much stuff do you have that you never use but can’t part with? And how good do you feel — and how much more effective are you at using the space you have available — when you have a purge day and open up all that room that you can use for today’s prized possessions?

Managers of irrelevance

In organizations, procedures, practices, systems, products and services all fall victim sooner or later to irrelevance. Markets change, customer needs change and priorities change, leaving irrelevance in their wake.

The problem is no one pays attention to this lack of usefulness because the people who perform the irrelevant tasks never pony up.

They are the LAST people who will admit that what they are doing should be axed.

And leadership doesn’t spot irrelevance easily because they have more lofty strategic goals to pursue. It’s no wonder that a small group of employees maintaining a system that has lost its usefulness is missed while leadership is paying attention to guiding the actions necessary to complete a strategic partnership transaction or enter a new market.

If only organizations could delete the stuff they no longer need and observe the added value they could produce.

In government, absolutely zero resources are assigned to mining out the no-longer-needed. When’s the last time you remember a social program of any sort being phased out? Talk about health care — budgets go up and feed a system that needs deletion and resurrection.

We no longer have the luxury to treat the new as an add-on. We can’t afford it. The new must ride on the back of the delete function.
Delete something and then add something new. We need the capability to create space for the new to enter; without deletion it can’t happen.

#CutTheCRAP

We need to start a Cut the CRAP movement — #CutTheCRAP — to seek out and cut things no longer relevant to our personal lives, organizations and governments.

The environment will benefit because the crap that no longer serves a useful purpose is identified and recycled; customers benefit because their service providers are more efficient and able to offer new services and potentially lower prices; and citizens benefit because governments are able to deliver new services more efficiently and hold taxes down as much as possible.

#DeleteIT

The point is, we need a relentless focus on hitting the delete button in our world of limited resources. Consumption must be linked with (and in many cases dependant on) deletion — delete something if you want to earn the right to consume something else.

But as long as sexy and success is associated with #AddIT it won’t happen.

In organizations we need to make hitting the delete button a top priority and assign a new role — Chief CRAP Officer (CCO) — to expunge the stuff throughout the organization that sucks resources and detracts from doing the new progressive initiatives dictated by their strategic game plan.

The CCO’s performance plan should be based on the value created from the savings realized by removing no-longer-relevant activities and hence the capability created to take on new initiatives without adding resources to do so.

In addition to a focus on new product development, the CCO should be held accountable for the old product deletion role.
How many sku’s do organizations offer with minimal sales? These are obvious candidates for #DeleteIT.

Innovation and creativity should no longer only be associated with #AddIT activities in a world that is relentlessly and inexorably moving towards a lack of resources.

‘Give up to get’ must find a way into our teachings if we are to avoid the consequences of too much output and too little capacity.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 3.11.19 at 04:02 am by Roy Osing
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