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I Get To vs. I Have To

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Do you have to exercise or do you get to exercise? Do you have to work on that long project or do you get to work on that long project? Do you have to rise at 5:30, or do you get to rise at 5:30 so you can have a good start on the day?

There are many things we may not directly choose — for example, I exercise primarily for my health, and not because I intrinsically enjoy it. But given that we will be doing them, we might as well change our mindset and view them positively.

That way, these things aren’t something we have to “get out of the way” in order to get on with “real life.” First of all, that’s a recipe for procrastination. Second and more importantly, though, I don’t have time to fill my life with things that aren’t “real life.”

When your mindset is “I get to” rather than “I have to,” you are more motivated because now you are doing it because you choose to. You will also find that there are many aspects of those activities that you do in fact enjoy, in spite of the difficulty.

You don’t have to run — or do that project — simply for the benefits. Difficult activities aren’t something to just get out of the way so that you can get on with what you really want to do. But you won’t see that if your mindset is “I have to.”

The Value of Design

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Well stated, from a Time article from a few years ago (but still very relevant):

Most high-tech companies don’t take design seriously. They treat it as an afterthought. Window-dressing.

But one of [Steve] Jobs’ basic insights about technology is that good design is actually as important as good technology.

All the cool features in the world won’t do you any good unless you can figure out how to use said features, and feel smart and attractive while doing it.

Reverse Engineering Google's Innovation Machine

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Harvard Business Review has a good article on Google’s ecosystem of innovation. For a quick overview, here is the idea in brief.

Also, here are two very dense and interesting sentences from the article:

“Every piece of the business plays a part, every part is indispensable, every failure breeds success, and every success demands improvement.”

“If the company’s expressed mission is to organize the world’s information, it has a somewhat less exalted but equally important unexpressed commercial mission: to monetize consumers’ intentions.”

The Innovator's DNA

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Harvard Business Review has a good article on how five discovery skills distinguish true innovators.

Here is the idea in brief, from the site:

The habits of Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, and other innovative CEOs reveal much about the underpinnings of their creative thinking. Research shows that five discovery skills distinguish the most innovative entrepreneurs from other executives.

Doing

•   Questioning allows innovators to break out of the status quo and consider new possibilities.

•   Through observing, innovators detect small behavioral details—in the activities of customers, suppliers, and other companies—that suggest new ways of doing things.

•   In experimenting, they relentlessly try on new experiences and explore the world.

•   And through networking with individuals from diverse backgrounds, they gain radically different perspectives.

Thinking

•    The four patterns of action together help innovators associate to cultivate new insights.

How Do You Predict What is Going to Happen?

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Every business and organization needs to anticipate the future. Failure to anticipate where things are going often results in outdated models that hinder organizational effectiveness. But how do you predict what is going to happen?

You can’t. But one part of the solution is found in the title for a book that Peter Drucker once said he wanted to write: “The Future that has Already Happened.”

Joseph Pine, co-author of The Experience Economy, put it this way: “We see what’s going on in the world — not what will happen, but what is already happening that most people do not yet see. Then we develop frameworks that enable others to see it too and determine what they should do about it.”

In other words, the critical skill for anticipating the future is actually the ability to understand the present. That is, to understand the present in a way that goes beyond the obvious. The way things will go tomorrow is to a large extent a function of what is happening now, but which most of us just don’t have the frameworks to see.

Are Management and Entrepreneurship at Odds?

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Sometimes there is a tendency to think that managers are slow and controlled, and entrepreneurs are exciting and progressive. The manager thus hinders the entrepreneur and makes everything boring.

And this can happen. But that is bad management. And in the same way that bad management makes things too controlled, bad entrepreneurship makes things unsustainable. We need both good management and good entrepreneurship. And entrepreneurship is a key component of the managerial task.

Here’s how Peter Drucker puts it:

One important advance in the discipline and practice of management is that both now embrace entrepreneurship and innovation. A sham fight these days pits “management” against “entrepreneurship” as adversaries, if not as mutually exclusive.

That’s like saying that the fingering hand and the bow hand of the violinist are “adversaries” or “mutually exclusive.” Both are always needed and at the same time.

Any existing organization, whether a business, a church, a labor union, or a hospital, goes down fast if it does not innovate. Conversely, any new organization, whether a business, a church, a labor union, or a hospital, collapses if it does not manage.

Not to innovate is the single largest reason for the decline of existing organizations. Not to know how to manage is the single largest reason for the failure of new ventures. (The Essential Drucker, p 8.)

The Unusual Origins of 15 Innovative Companies

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A good article over at BNet. They note:

Entrepreneurs worry too much about what they’re going to develop, make, or market. What’s more important is that they make, develop or market something. The odds that they end up making it big doing something different are apparently pretty high.Here are 15 companies that became famous, not for what they started doing, but for something that came later. Sure, they may be related, but the point is still valid: better to get started on something; innovative people find a way.

This jibes with Jim Collins’ research in Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies. They argue against “the myth of the single great idea.” In other words, great companies are often not the result of an initial great idea that propels them to success. What makes them great is that the product becomes the vehicle for the company, not the other way around.

Working Well With People

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Do you think you work well with people because you are able to talk well? Or do you think that you don’t work well with people because you aren’t able to talk well?

Peter Drucker points out that this has it backwards:

Too many think they are wonderful with people because they talk well. They don’t realize that being wonderful with people means listening well.

This is within the grasp of everyone. It is not easy, but everyone can do it.