Whiteboards In The Hallways

Hey there!

There’s a lot to be said for terrific preparation, a highly productive team, a detailed plan, the precise execution of that plan, and structured strategy and tactics that lead to awesome research and then to applying that research to solving problems. But is that really how problems are usually solved? Is that how breakthroughs occur?

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Hope this helps!

David

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hey there it’s David H Lawrence the 17th
and I ate I gotta tell ya I had a little
bit of an issue as to what I was going
to call this episode because there’s so
many things around this I’m gonna talk
about this subject I’m about to deal
with a couple of times in the future I
got an email from somebody telling me
how lovely it was that I had all of this
stuff planned out and and buttoned up
and really structured and had strategies
and tactics and and had everything
written down and all that stuff and it
made me think about the fact that yeah
you know you can have a terrific
preparation you can have a highly
productive day team you a detailed plan
about what you want to do the precise
execution of that plan and then you go
out and you research things and you
learn stuff and then you apply that
research in a very specific pattern and
a very specific process to get to the
end goal right and I want you to ask
yourself a question how often does it
actually happen like that you know like
we see it in the movies all the time
somebody’s going to build a business or
they’re gonna get something done and
they they they do it in a very efficient
and awesome manner and we love it we
cheer them on and I’m I’m more of the
opinion that you should leave room for
serendipity you know you should remember
the whiteboards in the hallways and
that’s what I ended up with this
I haven’t confirmed this with my buddy
Leon Oden boom yet but there’s a book
called the wiki man by Rory Sutherland
and he used to run the Ogilvy group
which is a huge ad agency huge added
worldwide ad agency and very creative
but they also have to have a process
right they have to come up with
commercials and and ads and billboards
and stuff for their clients and they
have to do it in a process but you have
to leave the room for creativity
and so he says something is quoted in an
article that I read he said the point is
simple if you look at all the really
important breakthroughs made in any
field what you will find is that the
unplanned the unintended or fortuitous
connection plays just as great a role as
the planned the processed and the
organized this is why fairly early on
Microsoft placed whiteboards along the
corridors on the Redmond campus so cool
for they found that the accidental
meetings which took place in the
hallways were in fact more productive
than the scheduled ones which were
happening in meeting rooms and you know
this ties into you know the idea that
all these great discoveries many of them
happen due to sheer accident something
got spilled or something was poured onto
a hot pan and it turned into like this
awesome rubber you know all these things
that happened so one simple message for
you today leave room while we’re trying
to hone and refine and be you know all
processed and everything leave room for
luck for spontaneity for serendipity
don’t shut those out in a quest to make
sure that everything is taken care of
everything is is you know put in a
notebook ready to go step 1 steps to
step 3 and I have to tell myself this
all the time because I’m a process guy
right I’m not an options guy and I have
to remember that I’m in a business
performance that is all about creativity
so allow your creativity to shine do try
to be as efficient as possible but don’t
let that get in the way of a really
great result makes sense I hope so tell
me your thoughts on that how much do you
give each how much weight do you give
the idea of being organized and having
an agenda and all that with the idea of
hey let’s just let’s see let’s see what
happens let’s just see what kind of
crazy stuff happens let’s do some improv
right tell me in the comments below I’d
love to hear it and if you’d like to
subscribe to my channel if you see my
ugly mug over there go ahead and click
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latest video is that one right there you
can go and click on that that’s the
latest one that’s been released I’m
David H Lawrence the seventeenth I
really appreciate you watching and I’ll
talk to you tomorrow

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