One survives problems by making them irrelevant because of success.
Every surprise is something to be taken seriously. The entire reporting system kind of encourages the neglect of opportunities and surprise, but also it’s fairly easy to change. Fifty years ago, a friend and mentor of mine invented a system used in a big company that’s become very successful as a result. Every manager, down to the first-line supervisor, sits down every month and writes a letter with one subject: the unexpected. Not what went right or what went wrong, but the unexpected. And then they have a meeting and look at these things with the question: Does this tell us something? Now, the great majority don’t, the great majority are just anecdotes, but there are usually three or four that are relevant. And out of this, the company—a pharmaceutical company—has grown from a fairly unimportant commodity producer to one of the world’s leaders. And it’s come out of surprises, clinical surprises, like when a physician uses a medication for what it was not developed for and has amazing results. You have to focus on success, especially unexpected success, and run with it.
ACTION POINT: Write a letter to your boss each month identify unexpected events. Pick out unexpected successes and pursue them.
“Meeting of the Minds,” Across the Board: The Conference Board Magazine
* Source: The Daily Drucker by Peter F. Drucker