CFC Blog #41: Running Faster Than the Bear

When I write objectives on lesson plans for the kindergarteners I work with I make sure to write them in a way that every student of all achievement capabilities will be able to reach the goal with complete understanding of the material. Thank you Rob for reminding me in your piece that the classroom is a team and that every students' success truly matters to move forward to new concepts!   

- Amanda

Running Faster Than the Bear

Have you hear this old Joke? When you and your friends are out in the wilderness and you’re confronted by a bear, you don’t have to run faster than the bear. You just have to run faster than your friends.

While that advice might work in the forest, in business it tends to be trouble.

I was at a conference last month conducting a workshop. During the scope of the day, I frequently refer to examples of large companies that are innovating in different ways. I discuss the challenges they encountered and the ways they’ve stayed successful since launching. 

So, as I finished and was packing up my laptop, a woman from the audience came up to me and wanted to know who, at one of the companies I referenced, I had worked with. I told her the name of the person. She laughed and flipped her name badge around: “I ask”, she said, "because I work for that company, and this is the first I’ve ever heard the details of that project.”

This is not an uncommon occurrence for me. 

I frequently encounter people from large companies where the innovation gap is wide. I hear things like “Oh, yes, that part of the organization is innovative in its approach to marketing. But the rest of the company is still antiquated.”

Now, I don’t have any pat answers, but this is is fascinating to me. When we read business books, or articles, or hear talks discussing how companies have innovated, or developed some cool innovation strategy, we assume that the whole company is leaning into that strategy. We just kind of assume they are “all in” and have integrated that strategy throughout the company. We picture the CEO kicking her heels up and nodding with satisfaction, “Yes, I approve of that strategy.”

But the truth is, in many cases, not only have these organizations NOT integrated the innovative approach, but also most of the rest of the organization is completely unaware of it.  As the “bear” of change and the innovation imperative chases the business, one part of the company may simply be outrunning their friends.

I think there is a danger in this.

In my experience, when we develop some interesting, new, innovative approach, we can often become so focused on how we develop and implement it, we forget about planning on how we’ll bring the other teams along with us. In fact, we may say to ourselves “we won’t involve them, because they’ll just slow us down.”

But what I’ve found is that this approach can leave us alone and, well, lacking any friends. I think if we continually outpace other parts of our team, we may find ourselves out ahead of the bear. But we may find that our teammates have tamed the bear and moved on, leaving us out in front, alone in the wilderness, with nowhere left to run.