The (Fill in the Blank) Way

Each professional entity has a way of handling business. This way is encoded
with spoken and codified rules and unspoken and non-verbal clues on how to
perform. What gets done, how decisions are made, and how money is
allocated can be defined as culture. This way, then, is an explicit and
implicit set of rituals that reward or punish based on its own complicated,
internal logic.
This way, the culture, has adapted over the years. Still, this way is now a
well-defined machine of productivity. It weeds out unfitting talent and risks,
and it refines work and the flow of work to a crystalline precision. This way
creates a shorthand, and saves money, time, and preserves the sense of the
place.
Think about it for a minute. What is your organizations way for handling
presentations, new product decisions, new market assessments, service
issues, or resolving conflicts? What are the processes, check points, keys to
enrollment, and styles of presentation that have become the default way in
your organization? How are people rewarded or punished?
Now, do yourself and your organization a valuable favor. Acknowledge that
this way is only an agreed upon construction of reality, a mental model and
not reality itself.
Here is why: noticing the norms of a model, a way, and then consciously
unlearning some of its defaults are key steps in taking breakthrough,
disruptive innovations to the market.
You see, every culture has antibodies built into the system. New ideas are
typically rejected as vehemently as foreign objects are rejected by the body.
The ____ way may be your biggest obstacle. Therefore, you have to develop
the visionary ability to zoom out and get a real sense of the market potential
of a new business concept without the blinding shackles of how we do it
today to limit the thinking.
Sure, there is a time for risk assessment, validation, and a synthesis period of
how we, as the ____ way, take this completely new line of business in a
channel to market, but if you dont cultivate this keen zooming out ability, the
culture will not allow you to dream valuable dreams.
Remember, those who are called to innovate have to be systems thinkers and
visionaries. Luckily, both are learnable skills. The factor that stymies
innovation most is the unconscious defaults of a company culture. Those who
recognize the systems operating assumptions and gently inspire others to
stretch their thinking on behalf of the organization change the culture in
countless positive ways.