CHALLENGE YOUR ASSUMPTIONS

Like the story of Wicked, we operate from assumptions every day in our businesses and jobs.  We hold onto beliefs without evidence to support them.  The more often we do things a certain way, the more difficult it is to disrupt our thought patterns.  Yet, we do know that the key to innovation is challenging our assumptions.
 
• Steve Jobs, the greatest innovator of our time, challenged the assumptions that a personal computer needed to be functional, not ascetic, and that  cell phones had to have buttons and square corners.

• Southwest Airlines challenged the assumption that you had to sell through travel agents, assign seats and issue tickets.

• Target has challenged the assumption that a lower end store could not set trends in fashion and bring in well-known designers.

Here are some tips on how we can  challenge the assumptions we have around our businesses and organizations:

• Recognize that we all have ingrained assumptions about every situation.  Our life experiences are all unique and valuable and have brought us to where we are today. Assumptions are not necessarily right or wrong, they are just our perspective.

• Ask "Why does this have to be this way?" in order to uncover and challenge the assumptions in your group.  Pretend that you have just joined the company and ask why things are done this way.  You may find that there is no valid reason beyond, "We've always done it this way."

• Create a list of the assumptions and rules around how you operate in your work, then take each one and ask: "What would happen if we assumed the exact opposite?". What if you assumed that your competitor wanted to work with you instead of crush you?  Could there be some opportunities for joint ventures? 

Here are two great tools to challenge the way you think: the Creative Whack Pack  - a deck of cards with 64 creative thinking strategies, and Thinkertoys, a book with exercises and tools to help you generate new ideas for your business.  Both of these have been around for over twenty years.  I used them when I was in the corporate environment and they always served to help the groups I led come up with new ways to operate. 

 So, just for today, see what happens when you challenge your assumptions.  What can you put round corners on?