There’s a big risk that comes with success: over-reliance on the ideas and methods that got you there. The business environment evolves constantly and a well-defined worldview can stifle innovation and spell disaster for you and your company. Charles Ehin, Professor of Management and author of Unleashing Intellectual Capital and Hidden Assets: Harnessing the Power of Informal Networks, says there are seven signs to watch out for when you or your colleagues are out of touch and begin to fossilize into the ways of old. Here’s the gist from a CIO Insight article he wrote today:
- Research not valued: “We have been very successful and our experience speaks for itself.”
- Lack of critical thinking: “That may work well within such and such an organization, but we are different.”
- Inability to take constructive criticism: “We are the originators of this method/product/theory. Who are they/you to question us?”
- Maintaining a positive image at all costs: “What would people think of us if this didn’t work as expected?”
- Lack of effective practice: “We have been advised by the best minds in the business. We can skip the experimental phase.”
- Blind faith in experts and top executives: “How can we go wrong? These people have worked with the top companies around the world for years.”
- Aversion to introspection: “We don’t need that fuzzy self-examination of feelings, thoughts and motives around here. We are practical people.”
The take-away here is that what worked then might not work now, and it’s important to seek out new information and synthesize it with knowledge you’ve gained in the past. Few assets are more valuable than real-world experience, but if your worldview starts to fossilize, it’s a short time to extinction.
