Are You Working On The Forest Or The Trees?
| Kelsey Ruger | Nov 11, 2005 | 6 Responses | Creativity |
You may not know this but, I am not a proponent of the traditional idea of “hard work”. In fact, I think that today’s definition of “hard work” can stifle a company’s ability to be creative and seek innovation. The type of “hard work” I am talking about has nothing to do with actually completing tasks (that should be a given). I am talking about “hard work” that is so focused on protecting and maintaining the status quo that opportunities can’t be pursued or are simply missed. You know the scenario – Everyone is working so hard they just can’t take time to think about “future possibilities”. Personally, I have a regularly habit of asking myself “Are you maintaining or imagining? We all know that today’s work life is crazy at best; with more things to do and less time to do them in. That is all good, but are you losing sight of the forest because of all the trees? Sometimes we spend a lot of time on quality improvement, service improvements, cycle-time reductions and almost no time on creating new advantages to our industry. Creativity and innovation is the responsibility of everyone…I mean everyone. The pace at which things happen is only going to increase. If your head is always down and you aren’t taking time to imagine what could be – someone else will.
So don’t work hard – work smart. Taking time for creative and making room for innovation is a part of working smart.
I agree partially. I think overworked people won’t be able to come up with innovative ideas. However, I also associate working hard with a good work ethic. I don’t think people need to be lazy to come up with good ideas.
I believe that hard work, at times, can not be avoided. I also believe that no business should be in business without embracing innovation and/or creativity. I believe this because most business fail rather than succeed. In the end they fail almost always due to a lack of innovation or creativity, not because hard work was absent. Another way to look at this is, “what’s so unique about your company, that I won’t find in another?” We all know that many companies are selling, servicing, or producing the same things. What we don’t always know are the things that sets one of those companies apart from the rest. Take for example, the automaker Dodge. Dodge is right up front and in your face about “who” and “what” they are. In a word, they are as they say in their advertising, “Dodge, Different”. They’re making cars, trucks, minivans, etc. like all of the others. However, they’ve done a far better job identifying the market they want to reach. Just take a good look at their TV ads. Dodge knows that consumers will either love their vehicles or hate them. And that tells us what? It tells us that Dodge has fully embraced their own passion for creating in-your-face, bold, and different vehicles. Lots of innovation went into the creation of the Hemi motor back in the 50’s…so much so that it has been re-birthed and Dodge can’t keep up with the demand for them. Hmm, I’m not sure ho all of that turned into a “car segment”.
Anyway, the Dodge boys are working smarter as they are working harder and it is paying off. The Chevy and Ford boys are working harder. Another example…a few months ago, we’ll all remember GM launched their employee pricing, then Ford follwed, with Dodge eventually getting in line as well. Why do you think Dodge was last to join in? I think it was because they were working smarter while the others were working harder, leaving Dodge in a position to jump on the bandwagon because the others were doing it, not because they needed to do it. Anyway, there I go again about the whole car thing.
I am not sure if taking time to innovate will really result in much innovation. Innovation is usually the result of inspiration, that ah ha moment when the world pauses briefly and a solution becomes clear. I think that the time that we most frequently fail to take is that time needed to evaluate and implement the results of our inspiration. Working hard, and doing things the same way makes us feel safe, and makes us feel necessary. Innovation implies risk and uncertainty. Fostering an innovative environment means encouraging risk taking and rewarding inspiration. It also requires accepting failures as a part of the process of innovation.
“work smarter, not harder” – one of my all-time favorite quotes. Striving to work smarter, as opposed to harder has been the key to a significant amount of successes in certain endeavours; especially those of which have been directly related to the web and auto racing.
Whenever I have allowed myself to work towards a goal with “more muscle than brain”, the results have not nearly been of the same quality as when mental clarity (as opposed to frustration and the sort) was abound. I agree with your post, Kelsey.
I am all for good work ethic. Hard is usually equated with long hours. Smart work means productivity. That doesn’t always require working perpetually long hours.
I totally agree that having the time to think creatively is needed to innovate. One of my biggest frustrations with working for large organizations has always been that feeling that “I’m dancing as fast as I can” and never a feeling of accomplishment. I get a lot of “work” done because of working long hours, but never feel that I’ve really accomplished anything of importance. During one reorganization (i.e. a major layoff) one way employees in other departments “worked smarter” was to give tasks normally done in their department to our department and my boss put up with it. Then I wanted to slap her when she told us to “work smarter.” If she quit taking on every other department’s work to make herself look good, we might have had some time to think about how to work smarter. Instead of slapping her, I resigned and moved on to a more fulfilling job.