EP Business in Hospitality Issue 48 - January 2014

MANAGEMENT
Miriam Staley,
encourages us
to think beyond
conventions when
it comes to the way we lead
Think before
YOU LEAD
When engineers
from electronics
brand Haier went
to the Chinese
countryside to fix
broken washing machines, they discovered
something surprising. Farmers were
using their product to wash vegetables!
Rather than following the same line of
thinking as their competitors, who had
also discovered this intriguing use for their
machines, and simply marvelling at the
so-called ‘ignorance’ and ‘stupidity’ of
the rural farmers, Haier did something
different. Very different.
They developed their thinking about
their business and produced a model
of machine with a specific ‘vegetable
washing’ cycle, which became a hugely
successful item, cementing Haier’s
position as a stand-out leader in
that marketplace.
Leadership isn’t just what you see on
the surface, the actions or even the words.
Leadership is everything that has had to
take place to get to that point. And that
includes leadership thinking.
Increasingly, elasticity and adaptability
of thought as much as critical, strategic
and creative thinking is becoming a
necessary characteristic for a leadership
population in any industry.
Albert Einstein said: “The problems
that exist in the world today can’t be solved
by the same level of thinking that created
them.” If, as leaders, we are committed to
taking this challenge to heart, then that
means making some significant changes
to the way we process information, seek
solutions and then ultimately make the
decisions that drive us and our
organisations forward.
In this environment of fast-paced
change, information overload and extreme
busyness, it is difficult to find or create the
necessary space and time required to focus
on our thinking as a distinct first step of
any decision-making process. It is even
harder to truly stretch our thinking beyond
the confines of convention, further than
what we believe we already know and away
from the vicious jaws of flawed reasoning
to which it is all too easy to fall prey.
We are all at the mercy of the cognitive
biases that lurk in the dark alleyways of
our minds, but these can be particularly
dangerous in a context of leadership, where
the need for innovation and adaptability
is essential to ensure a bright – and
profitable – future.
You may have been brought up with an
appreciation of the value of the old adage
‘think before you speak’, but a new mantra
for modern-day business could well be
‘think before you lead’. And to this end, an
open mind and the willingness to question
everything is a great starting point.
Challenging the underlying assumptions
that are at the root of all our thinking is a
great way to unlock new potential and
creative solutions. The frame of
unconscious rules and constraints that
surround all our problems and form our
worldview might well keep everything
safely in its place, but also precludes the
option for a bigger window of opportunity
or, better yet, a doorway into an as yet
unimagined future.
A franchise holder for a company that
supplied vehicle cleaning and maintenance
products was struck one day by the
realisation that because the company
name was Autosmart and the product
instructions referenced cars and trucks,
he had never thought outside the
boundaries that those parameters had
created in his mind.
As soon as he broke that frame, he also
broke into new markets, with the discovery
that not only did their soap formula keep
boats and yachts spotlessly clean, but also
that their particular brand of polish was
perfect for a high gloss finish on both
pianos and – perhaps in the greatest leap
of lateral thought – marble gravestones!
While our inherent biases can
sometimes enable us to comply with
social norms and keep us from extreme
danger, when it comes to leadership
thinking they are rarely our friends.
Whether it’s an innate tendency to search
for things that confirm our beliefs while
discounting those options that don’t, or
a bias towards solutions that create the
smallest degree of change and maintain
an accepted status quo, we must seek to
understand and then think beyond what
quickly becomes the brain’s equivalent of
a boa constrictor wrapping itself around
our maximum thought potential. If we
don’t it would be a bit like continually
trying to drive a car with the handbrake on.
When we adopt an expansive approach
to the way we think, the results speak for
themselves. And there’s nothing stopping
you from starting now.
If Haier can invent a washing machine
with a cycle for farmers’ vegetables and car
polish can make a gravestone shine, then
just think about what you could do. •