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In a business landscape of rapid change, middle market companies need to think differently, coming up with bold, new solutions (many of them enabled by technology) to internal and external challenges. What worked in the past likely won’t work in the future. Business author Jonah Sach’s new book, Unsafe Thinking: How to Be Nimble and Bold When You Need It Most, focuses on how leaders can think in new ways and encourage their organizations to think in new, unconventional ways.
The NCMM caught up with Jonah Sachs, who’s the founder of marketing agency Free Range Studios, to discuss how middle market companies and leaders might apply the insights of “Unsafe Thinking” to solve their most pressing business problems.
How do you define unsafe thinking?
Sachs: It’s about departing from the standard operating procedure, whether that’s of our company or just the standard operating procedure that we’ve embedded in ourselves over time, such as the ways we think. When you reach a certain level of success, you tend to act in very habitual and patterned ways. That tends to happen even more when the stakes get higher and you need to act more quickly. You go back to those habits and conventional, “safe” ways of thinking. I’m arguing in the book that to go against the grain is incredibly important at a time when the rules of the game and the environment are changing so rapidly. That said, fundamentally changing our cognitive tools and our behaviors is difficult but more and more needed.
What are the obstacles to this unconventional, unsafe thinking middle market leaders should be doing more of?
Sachs: Anxiety is one. When the world changes around you, your biological response says to narrow down your options, be expedient, and find the most direct path of getting away. Your peripheral vision literally shuts down, so you don’t sit down with a white board and think about all the options you might take and brainstorm with the team. But the same fear that triggers a narrow “fight or flight” response can also be fuel for creativity. Leaders need to think differently about fear and anxiety, something the book explores at length.
There’s also the tyranny of time and urgency. We’re moving as fast we can, but often not spending time thinking about where we’re actually going. When we’re in a hurry, we tend to do conventional things, follow well-worn patterns that may not serve us well.
How can middle market company managers motivate their employees in order to unleash more unsafe thinking and creativity?
Sachs: It’s ironic, but managers need to make people feel safe about thinking in unsafe ways. The message managers should be sending is that we need you and will incentivize you to speak up and offer your best ideas, even if they go against the group or against the grain. We can disagree and debate, but we show respect, understanding, and get to know each other. That’s one way to make it safe to get unsafe.
Leaders who are humble and use questions tend to inspire more confidence and creativity. A good manager will make space for others, make sure that everyone in the group is sharing what they know and that all information is being integrated into the decision. I think of a manager as the creative MVP, not by always having the solution but by facilitating the right process to unleash the best in people.
Why do you suggest that subject-matter experts put themselves in positions where they feel like novices?
Sachs: We live in this era of specialization where we think we need to spend as much time adding value by doing what we’re best at. We get really good at something and then we see the world around us through the filter of that expertise, so we start seeing every new situation as a new flavor of an old problem. Egos become attached to seeing in a certain way and we’ll actually bend evidence to tell us the opposite of what’s actually happening.
The best way to get out of that “expert’s curse” is to spend time doing things outside of your zone of expertise. It’s humbling when you do that. You realize that you’re not invaluable once you step outside of your comfort zone. There’s also a lot of evidence showing that if you’re stuck on a problem and you go do something unrelated to the problem, the brain starts to recognize new pathways to solve the problem, so you gain new insights.
How and why can middle market leaders get into trouble when they use their gut to make decisions?
Sachs: Gut instincts are enormously helpful in many situations. A huge amount of genius can pop to the surface all at once as intuition. It just feels right. You process a lot of information, and make the right decision. When you ask leaders what they rely most upon, intuition, data or the advice of others, they consistently say intuition. But it’s almost impossible to tell the difference between intuition and bias, so leaders need to be careful about the risks here. One of the world’s leading researchers on intuition told me: “trust your intuition, but verify it.” Listen to your gut, yes, but investigate the data too, ask critical questions, and use your intuition as a working hypothesis that needs to be tested.
How should middle market companies think about which rules, processes and policies are hindering creativity and unsafe thinking?
Sachs: People who study organizational behavior say dissent or rule-breaking is happening all the time within companies, whether the rules are written or unwritten. People can’t possibly follow all the rules, and so they don’t. There’s this positive disobedience going on where people are actually figuring out better, more creative ways of doing things, no matter what the rules say. But they’re not really sharing these practices with others because they don’t want to be punished.
If there’s an entire culture of rule-defying going on, you may need to adjust your rules. You might consider going through your handbook and slashing everything you think might be unnecessary, that might get in people’s way needlessly. It’s about better reflecting how your people are actually doing the work and then having the rules reflect what works best.