Repurposing: Using Established Processes for Creativity and Results

For the second year, renowned evolutionary theorists met at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for the now-annual Festival of Bad Ah-Hoc Hypotheses (BAH-Fest). Here, researchers use traditional scientific methods and processes to develop satirical theories. The winner of the 2014 BAH-Fest presented a theory of how belly fat in middle-aged men evolved for floatation purposes to save his family from drowning.

I read an article by Angela Chin in the December 1, 2014 Wall Street Journal about this event and, aside from being amused, realized that there is a deeper lesson in this event—the repurposing of traditional methods for creativity and refinement.

In business, we have the tendency to take ourselves too seriously and often become unilaterally focused on a single objective—or the bottom line—that we miss the bigger picture.

Researchers and scientists often fall prey to this same behavior.

BAH-Fest is a way to shake off the traditional paradigmatic approaches and go back to basics—focusing on the scientific method and presenting sound (albeit satirical) research.

This mental shift to satire, while still remaining true to methodological roots, allows researchers to break from a one-track focus and give a presentation at an event which expands a greater goal of science—to bring about understanding, and, where appropriate, societal change.

I imagine that the “real” work from participants benefits immensely from this creative mental break, and brings about a renewed focus and clarity.

This can be replicated in your organization.

  • Where have your employees lost sight of the bigger picture?
  • What processes aren’t being followed well and are causing lapses in productivity?
  • How can you repurpose a process or system in your organization to unleash creativity?

Think about how you can create an outlet for innovation. By doing so, you can get back to basics and reunite your employees around the bigger goal or vision and expedite forward progress.

Need help? Let’s communicate about it.

The Most Overlooked Mission

Whether you’re presenting an idea within an organization or you’re pitching to an organization, there’s one thing that you should be sure to look at that is often overlooked: the mission statement.

An organization’s mission statement is a statement of why that business exists–it’s purpose, it’s core, it’s focus. Mission statements often guide decision-making in organizations, serving as a compass directing action.

If you’re not looking at a company’s mission statement before you pitch your idea, you’re missing out on a valuable source of information to help you craft your messaging.

You could also be missing an opportunity to recognize shared ambitions and build a relationship.

I teach a university course on communication and entrepreneurial thinking. This doesn’t focus on teaching students to be entrepreneurs, but rather to think like entrepreneurs and communicate their ideas effectively. Before I take students through the idea generation process they have to first identify an organization and get to know its mission, vision and values. Knowing this information enables them to better cultivate ideas and craft messaging that will ultimately go into a pitch.

This process is the same whether you work for an organization and you want to pitch an idea to management, or if you are a business owner presenting a proposal to a potential client.

In short, you need to know your audience. And the mission statement is a good place to start.

Learning Through Doing: The Process Matters

Equifinality means that there are many paths to the same end—in business, that there are multiple ways to reach a final goal.

Think of navigating from Times Square to Lincoln Center. There are many different ways you can get from point A to point B, and many different methods of transportation to get you between points. Depending on traffic, subway schedules, weather and other assorted factors, one way is likely faster than the others.

But in taking that one way—say on this given day it’s a taxi—you’re missing out on many other possible discoveries and observations that walking or taking public transportation would’ve presented

If you’re focusing on cultivating a culture of innovation and developing your employees, those potential discoveries and observations are key to growth.

A fatal flaw that many managers make is assuming that their ideas or processes are always the best—the most efficient—and therefore need to be continually executed.

In organizations there are many ways to accomplish a single task. Yes, some may be more efficient than others, but often times an employee’s learning process in accomplishing a task is just as important as the task itself.

Note: In a previous blog I talked about three phrases that leaders should never use if they want to encourage innovation and participation. One of these phrases, “That’s now how we do things around here,” is also very applicable to the concepts this post.

What to Do When Someone Says “It’s Not Possible”

I live in one of the “luxury” apartment buildings in Manhattan. And for 90%+ of the people who live in this building, they get to enjoy the full luxury experience. For me, however, it’s a little different.

I live on the side of the building that touches a major retailer’s loading dock and storage facility. Each day and night I’m accosted by noises that transfer, making it sound like pallets are being dragged and dropped literally above my head. The physics of sound transfer are astonishing. This happens all hours of the day and night, making a full-night’s rest a wishful thought.

For four months I’ve put in complaints, made suggestions for change, offered potential solutions, and all have fallen on deaf ears. After realizing that the building management has no capacity to implement change, I went directly to the property manager. I wrote to him, offering suggestions, including a rent reduction or credit until I could be moved into the same-size unit in a different building location.

After not receiving a response for eight days, I re-sent a message asking him to give me the courtesy of a response. His first line: “Hi Jill–a rent reduction is not possible.”

Not possible? That combination of words is not readily in my vocabulary.

The grammatically-literal me wanted to write back, “I urge you to consult a dictionary for the meaning of the word ‘possible’.” Or, “What you mean to say is that it is possible, but that you’re not willing to consider it.” But I held my tongue (or fingers in this case).

Telling someone that something is “not possible” is a dangerous action.

Unfortunately, business managers do it all too often.

When you tell someone that something is “not possible” you will typically get one of two reactions:

  1. The person will be even more determined to prove you wrong. –or–
  2. The person’s spirit will be broken.

Both of these positions take away from workplace productivity.

In the first, you have an employee focused on the wrong things–restoring equity, looking for a new job, or focusing so hard on what is “not possible” that other tasks fall by the wayside.

With the second, you get an employee who feels under-valued, under-appreciated, or, worse, under-utilized. By saying something is “not possible” you’re telling someone that his or her thoughts aren’t  worth merit, that the innovation isn’t worth consideration, and that he or she shouldn’t bring new ideas to the table.

If you’re going to use the words “not possible” or if you catch them slipping out, here is a simple fix.

Add “unless…” to your sentence.

“It’s not possible unless you/I/we can find a way to [reduce the budget by X amount].”

This phrase shows the employee some cause and effect, and also challenges the employee to be creative about a way to reduce the budget. Many new ideas could come to the surface from this simple addition.

Don’t discourage innovation by using limiting language. Instead, let your employees help you rethink what is possible.

For those curious on where my story goes, I did respond back, inviting him, or whoever makes the decisions on what is “possible”, to stay in my unit (or the now-vacant-because-of-the-noise unit next to me). We will see what happens. To be continued…