It's Not What You Sell, It's What You Stand For by Roy M. Spence Jr

Author:Roy M. Spence Jr.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group

BE CURIOUS

Norman Brinker is the father of the modern casual sit-down restaurant. He brought Chili’s, Romano’s Macaroni Grill, and a variety of other concepts to middle-class America searching for a place to eat with their families. He taught me what curiosity looks like in action. He would personally check out every competitor on every corner of the earth. He taught us to look beyond the obvious, to learn and question everything about the competition, and to learn and question everything about our customers.

Norm believed: Curiosity never killed the cat, it kills the competition.

Jim Collins once told me a story about a gentleman who gave him an apple before his interview (with Collins) as a metaphor for the type of student-teacher relationship he was hoping to find if he got the job. While most academics would have been flattered by this gesture, Jim was immediately turned off. As Jim puts it, he wants curious chimps, not obedient, apple-bearing students. He wants to be questioned, challenged, and proven wrong by those around him. It’s only by surrounding himself with other equally curious chimps that he’s able to hone his thinking and develop the type of insights that have set him leagues apart from all the other business strategy gurus out there.

The Art of War teaches us to reward the “scouts”—those individuals who are sent out on the front lines to evaluate the terrain, assess the threats and opportunities, and help the generals create a plan based on the situation on the ground.3 The scouts are the ones who will help you and your teams to win. The scouts are the curious ones seeking to find out the truth. As a leader, it’s your job to encourage, recognize, and reward acts of curiosity throughout your organization.

One of the leaders at John Deere does just that in a very simple yet powerful way each day with the employees on the front lines—employees who are overlooked by many organizations as sources of innovation. One of the core values of John Deere is, in fact, innovation. This dealer didn’t want curiosity and innovation to be the domain of R&D in the corporate office. And he firmly believed that it’s the men and women on the front lines who have the firmest grip on reality, including those problems that require immediate attention. This dealer had developed a very simple tactic to encourage curiosity. Anyone who discovered a problem and thought he had a better way of doing something was empowered to try out his solution. Some companies empower their workers in similar ways but do not follow up or offer any incentive for their people to innovate. John Deere is different.

That dealer had a simple process that ensured the employee was rewarded and the whole dealership could benefit. After the employee tried out his new idea, he simply had to describe it in a paragraph or two and submit it to the office manager. In return, that employee would automatically get a $25 “curiosity bonus” added to his next paycheck.

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