Breaking free from "Can’t Because" Thinking

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We’ve all experienced situations at home, at work, around the braai, in the WhatsApp group or wherever, where every proposed solution or “oh what if we...” is met with that ever so final “we can’t do that, because…”. While frustrating in everyday life, for organisational culture, this mindset can be dire.

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In my client interactions at eatbigfish, I encounter many organisations trapped in a ‘can’t because’ mindset. This results in problems left unchecked, getting bigger and hairier over time. ‘Can’t because’ thinking is incredibly stifling to progress - it removes the oxygen ideas need to emerge and the flow needed for solutions to flourish. While we’re all guilty of this thinking from time to time, for an organisation that wants to thrive, the cost of this chronic thinking is too consequential to ignore.

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Let’s explore some signs of organisations at risk of ‘can’t because’ thinking:

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Path Dependence

When organisations fall into the trap of "we've always done it this way" or ‘category best practice,’? which becomes ‘proven practice’, and then ‘corporate preferred practice’, until it becomes locked-in behaviour. This limits the organisation’s ability to learn, adapt, and grow.

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Prioritising Process Over Progress

While process is important, an over-reliance on process to give you the answer can stifle agile inventiveness, which is critical for a Challenger. Progress is the permission and ability to inch forward, chipping away at the problem, building and iterating to find the answers.

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Lack of Play Culture

Play might not look like ping-pong with colleagues (we don’t all work at Google). It might be taking a walk or a change of scenery - anything that jolts the status quo and invites experimentation.

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Delayed Route to Market

Long periods of inactivity reduce the organisation’s share of voice and relevance. This is often due to waiting for perfection before launching instead of adopting a test, learn, and iterate approach.

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High Employee Turnover

Fixed cultural systems reject new ideas and people who don’t fit ‘how things are done around here.’ This resistance to change makes it difficult to retain talent and foster a dynamic work environment.

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As you can see, legacy thinking, bureaucracy, and fear of failure can often become ingrained in a company's culture, especially in a ‘command and control’ environment where people have limited autonomy to make decisions and own outcomes. Effective leaders create an environment where it is safe to ask intelligently naive questions, share ideas across departments, and encourage risk-taking and learning from failure. They facilitate a culture of sharing and cross-pollination of ideas, both within and across business units. For any organisation that wishes to grow and challenge the status quo,? it is dangerous to have people who are more afraid to be wrong or fail than they are to think differently and explore opportunities. For leaders who want to get the best out of their teams, it’s important to measure and incentivise the desired behaviours – because the reality is, you reap what you reward (or don’t reward).

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So, what’s the alternative to this often default human ‘cant because’ position? While there’s no step-by-step guide, I can offer a few helpful principles and ways in which you can embrace this journey.

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Unifying Belief

Organise everyone’s efforts around one unifying belief, which illuminates the path like a lighthouse.

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Propelling Questions

Start with the right questions (what we call Propelling Questions) as a catalyst to finding the right answers. A ‘propelling question’ combines a big ambition with a significant constraint, propelling more inventive solutions. For example, one of Audi’s propelling questions? was “How can we win the Le Mans race (ambition), with a car that can go no faster than others (constraint)?” It’s quite the opposite of blue-sky thinking, because this brings the constraint into the ideation process to propel more inventive solutions.

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“We Can If…” Thinking

We use a handy tool called the ‘can-if map’ which helps stimulate multiple prompts and thinking pathways to answering propelling questions. We can if we partner with…; We can if we think of it as…; We can if we substitute x for y….”. These prompts alone can unlock and inspire new thinking, as they help jolt teams out of complacent, path dependent thinking.

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Pockets of Agility and Innovation

In deeply established organisations, it is sometimes helpful to create ring-fenced pockets of agility and innovation with the mandate and freedom to think differently without bureaucracy. A good example is retail giant TFG, who created TFG Labs, a tech hub of over 100 employees, with the goal of transforming TFG into a high-tech omnichannel retailer.

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Collaboration

Collaborate widely and often, taking a fundamental over departmental approach to ideation and solution finding. When we partnered with Albany to reposition their brand, they invited non-marketing and manufacturing personnel into the discussions.

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Redefine Category Boundaries

Challenge yourself to continually learn and push the boundaries of your category. Innocent Drinks, for example, intentionally think of themselves as the number 2 in their category, allowing them to continually redefine boundaries and advance the category through innovation.

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Changing a pervasive “we can’t because…” culture is not easy, but it is important. New ways of thinking can be achieved by applying some of these principles and tools. Perhaps the most powerful tool, even at a personal level, is to alter your language and challenge yourself to say “we can if…” more often. There is so much potential on the other side of that statement.