The best thing since . . .
Did you know that 100 years ago, sliced bread was yet to be invented?
In 1928 Otto Rohwedder put this device into service at the Chillicothe Baking Company in Missouri in the US. It could slice 1000 loaves an hour, and people came from afar to see this miracle at work.
It was such an innovation that, starting in the 1950s, any bright, shiny, new thing was characterised as “the best thing since sliced bread”.
What the bread-slicer really is, though, is the instantiation of a simple idea, that led to a plethora of downstream effects. Pre-sliced bread gave someone an idea for a uniformly proportioned electric toaster. The bread itself became lighter and more uniform, packaged in familiar plastic bags. It led to entire generations of children self-sustaining after school on toast and jam (if you’re English), peanut butter (for Americans), or Vegemite (for us Aussies).
But this simple instantiation (turning an idea into reality) we see everywhere around us. Think about how ubiquitous rolling luggage is (Be honest: I know you’ve never thought about this before, have you?).
Go to any airport and look for suitcases without wheels: there are none. Go back 50 years, and there were none with wheels. That’s when Bernard Sadow first put wheels onto a suitcase, with a strap to pull it with. Then, in 1987, a pilot, Robert Plath, did two further tweaks to create what we know today: vertically oriented, with a retractable handle.
In your organisations, I’m guessing you’re not creating universal consumer goods, but it’s Rohwedder and Sadow’s mindsets that are valuable to us: start with a problem, make user-centric simplicity your guiding principle, and keep testing and course-correcting. Also, play the long game: be aware that your innovation may take years to deliver their full potential.
Question: What innovations do you have (or could you have) within your organisation that set foundations for a plethora of positive ‘downstream’ effects?
How much is your identity worth?
Back before 9/11 scared us into the 21st century, identity verification was lax. For hundreds of years, we’d relied on signatures, which the English State of Frauds Act (1677) introduced as proof that someone was entering into a contract.
Indeed, I used two names until 20 years ago. One was on my birth certificate and passport (Laszlo Andrew Hollo); the other was the name my family used day-to-day (Andrew Leslie Hollo). Problem was, I had bank accounts in both names. One day I tried to transfer money between them and was told no: “Sir, it’s impossible that you are BOTH people”.
Sigh.
I’ve since changed my name by deed poll to one name only (if you’re interested, it’s now Andrew Laszlo Hollo) but I’ve still run into uniquely 21st century dilemmas.
My identity was stolen via a credit card, resulting in $20,000 of charges in large chunks over almost a year (yes, I got it all back, including interest). Just recently, I was notified that VicRoads (the road authority in my state) had been hacked and, among the identities stolen was mine. This resulted in the ingenious solution of giving me a second drivers’ licence number. Yes, I now need to cite both in any official correspondence with them. (I shudder to think what will happen next time they’re hacked).
But all this shows that we’re moving towards services that are ‘trust architectures’, constructed by businesses that offer identity verification, for a fee.
An example is Clear, an identity system used for skipping the onerous ‘security theatre’ at US airports. You pay $189 for a year, agree to undergo biometric scans, and they add you to a list of verified ‘low risk’ frequent travellers. The same business is looking closely at other realms in which identity verification has economic value: healthcare, insurance and banking.
But, all this got me thinking that, in a commodified, hyper-connected and increasingly virtual world, our identities are ever more fragile. We want to be recognised, legitimated and validated. And, we’ll pay for that privilege, as well as expect the companies we deal with to see us as ‘real’, by having confidence in us being who we say we are.
Question: How do your business’s offerings both elicit — and create — trust and confidence amongst your customers?
Facile
On a daily basis, I get asked by clients and prospects to “facilitate” a conversation. Facilitate strategy. Facilitate a tough decision.
I’ve run these processes for decades but it wasn’t until last week that a fellow consultant asked me, “Andrew, do you know the origin of the word ‘facilitate’?”
I honestly replied that I didn’t.
So, she told me the obvious: The French and Italian word for ease is facile. Both come from the Latin facilis.
We then, over our coffees, had a fascinating conversation about how great facilitation creates ease. But it wasn’t till I was walking away afterwards that I had an epiphany.
Every facilitative process I have ever used has relentless simplification at its core. And, as I’ve thought about it since, I realise that every conversation I facilitate has three strands of simplification, roughly in this order:
Simplify the destination: If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll never know when you get there. Start with the end. Work ‘right to left’. The art here is getting a desired future state down to the fewest meaningful elements.
Simplify distinctions: With any complex issue, there are usually a few essential differences, or contrasts, that require agreement - faster or slower / bigger or smaller / client-centric or company-centric / commercial or human / tight or loose control. The art is knowing which distinctions are relevant.
Simplify variability: Opinions and experiences vary. We don’t always need (or want) consensus, but we need a way of detecting majority opinion and buy-in. The art here is how to deal with the minority views. (I often cut through by using a ‘deep democracy’ approach, which involves asking, “What would need to change for you to agree with the proposition supported by the majority of your colleagues?”)
The paradox is that facilitation aims to create ease, but it’s only easy to do this when I invest considerable design thinking on what questions I’ll ask, and how I’ll navigate destinations, distinctions and variations.
Question: How can you facilitate conversations in your organisations that make concepts or decisions easier?
I appreciate the ‘fan mail’ and even the simple clicks of the heart button. After all, feedback makes the world go round, so please consider letting me know you’re enjoying reading.
Look around you for the various ways in which society recognises and legitimates you, and I look forward to being with you again next Friday.
Andrew
A tool for my tool box from my read today. In 'complex' facilitation sessions phrasing something akin to - What would need to change for you to agree with the proposition supported by the majority of your colleagues? Helpful. Thanks Andrew
Indeed! To make it easy for the client requires preparation, thoughtfulness and discipline... and the easier and simpler something looks and feels, often the more 'hard' work has gone in to get it there.