"Until co-founders Gordon Moore and Andy Grove used a simple thought experiment to imagine Intel as a microprocessor company, they were going broke as a memory maker. Their transformational exercise, according to Grove in his book Only the Paranoid Survive, took the form of a question: "What would the new guys do?"
In other words, if the board of directors fired and replaced them, what would those hypothetical new guys do to save their company? That simple thought experiment enabled Grove and Moore to move Intel from a consciousness and an industry where Intel couldn't make money to a consciousness and an industry (microprocessors) where they could become the dominant player in a different category.
A little business called The Beatles used a similar thought experiment to jumpstart their creativity at a time when they were out of songs, out of ideas and wanted to make an album unlike anything they'd ever made before. The year was 1966. The Beatles had just heard The Beach Boys' new Pet Sounds, an album with such thoughtful lyrics, beautiful melodies and complex arrangements and instrumentation that The Beatles felt as if the Beach Boys had just raised the bar of excellence. The Beach Boys had, somehow, transcended the sound that had made them famous and had made a most un-Beach Boys-like album. The Beatles were inspired to rise to the Beach Boys challenge and reinvent themselves to make a masterpiece of their own, but how? The Beatles didn't have enough new material to record an album, and even if they did have the material, they wouldn't be happy with that material now that they had heard Pet Sounds. So the Beatles conducted a simple thought experiment that took the form of a question: "What if we weren't The Beatles? What kind of songs might we write and what kind of album might we make if we were a different band?" The Beatles took on a new persona complete with a new look and a new name — Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Pretending to be a different band freed them to write and record in a new way. The result was an album that many rock critics think is the best rock album ever made.
Both Intel and The Beatles solved a major business problem — one strategic, the other creative — by conducting simple thought experiments that took the form of a simple "what if" question. Notice that the transformational questions asked by Intel and The Beatles are variants on the question "What would somebody else do?" By learning to ask this question and following the answer wherever it leads, business owners and managers can become their own consultants, step outside themselves and look at business problems with a fresh set of eyes. Notice how asking the question "What would somebody else do?" makes the answer to these common questions obvious.
Recently, I spoke with an executive who wants to challenge his division to pursue more high-dollar, complex and prestigious projects, but he has a key department head who doesn't share that vision. It's difficult for this firm to recruit the best young professionals because they want to work for a firm that does more exciting projects. When the firm does attract young talent, that talent doesn't stick around long because they don't want to work for that key department head.
"What would somebody else do in your situation?" I asked.
"Somebody else would fire the visionless middle manager and replace him with someone who aspires to greater things," said the executive.
Then why not become that other guy and replace the department head with a manager who shares your vision and won't poison the minds and attitudes of your young talent?
Get two business consultants together and listen to them talk shop. It won't be long before you will hear them talk about times when their clients would have found their services unnecessary had the clients learned to ask the question, "What would somebody else do?" As author and consultant Susan Scott puts it, "The answers are already in the room." Pinpointing those ever-present right answers starts with asking the right questions.
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