by Eric Lopkin
As business people we tend to get locked into doing things the way we always have. There are good reasons for this. Repetition makes us efficient. We tend to have the same types of situations repeat themselves and so we have developed ways to handle them. This does, however, tend to leave us with blinders on.
When early focus groups were asked what features they wanted in a smartphone, no one suggested a touch screen. Why? No one had used one before. They didn’t think to request one because they were so used to phones as they existed, they never considered another way of doing things. Their habits and thought processes were geared towards the hardware they were using.
In the same way, we often miss important opportunities for improvement that are right in front of us. The simplest way to keep this from limiting our abilities is to remember one thing: all things are possible. When you shift your mindset from “it can’t be done” to “how can it be done” you open up untold possibilities. Here are some ways to push your mind to recognize potential improvements:
- Take away an important element: How would you complete your task without it? Can you change your process to get similar results?
- Limit resources: If you need to do the same job with fewer resources, how would you do it?
- Add a new factor: How can you accomplish your task if you have to use this new factor?
Look and things differently and remember that all things are possible.
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