Breaking Free From the Herd Mentality

As a leader, you must be aware that all strategies have a shelf life. What is unique and leading edge today will one day be commoditized. Remember frequent flyer points, which are now Air Miles? They were once exclusive to elite travelers, and today you get points for your broccoli at Safeway.

Former Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chair Charlie Munger once said: “Only dead fish go with the flow.”?

Whenever you, as a leader, decide to join the competition in a strategy race, you’re back in the traffic and likely to run into congestion.?

Munger believed in zigging when everyone else was zagging.?What about you?

If you are always going along with the flow, there is a greater margin for error and tougher competition. Duplicating and copying others creates a log jam and is basically a race to the bottom.?

High competition and traffic jams may be an early indication that the strategy is reaching its best before date. The axiom, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is valid, but only to a point.?This is the equivalent of milking the proverbial cash cow in the BCG matrix.

As a leader, you are expected to anticipate problems and identify opportunities by looking around corners of opportunity and creating a vision for the desired future. If you’re honest with yourself, you’ll know you are stuck in traffic because of choices you made/didn’t make.?

At the outset, a new strategy has few supporters. That means little traffic on the highway because you are not certain you’re on the right route yet.

As it becomes evident that your idea or concept is good, the traffic increases and the followers and imitators appear.

As more competitors join in, traffic slows down and eventually grinds to a halt. Your strategy is burnt toast. Or as Munger says, the dead fish keep going with the flow. Organizations end up here because creative thinking has ended, outdated plans are protected, comfort and security are priorities, and excuses are made for things that don’t go well.?

As a leader, you need to understand that all strategies have a shelf life.?Engage in constant reviews and keep asking, “How can we improve?”

A change does not always require a change in values or philosophy, but rather a shift within the organization on how to best proceed.?Therefore, as the leader, you must be proactive in your approach to keep your team and organization zigging while the traffic is zagging.

To Avoid the Traffic Jams…

1. Think Like a Contrarian:?This requires a mindset that involves?challenging the status quo and questioning widely accepted truths.?It means getting comfortable with discomfort. Seeing opportunities where others don't, and taking risks when others choose safety.?
2. Be Brave:?Have the confidence to change or move away from old or outdated practices.?Have enough research to support your shift, and don’t keep driving forward by looking through the rear-view mirror.
3. Change or Become Irrelevant:?Eric Shinseki, the former chief of staff of The United States Army, once said, “If you don’t like change, you will like irrelevance even less.”?Accept the reality that changing strategies is good and necessary, but never go away from your core organizational principles and values.?
4. Choose Your Hill to Die On: Beyond initiating and championing change, there are times to stand firm on principles and practices that got you where you are today. This is not contradicting what is written above – this is the essence of great leadership. Leadership is hard and sometimes lonely.

If you are tired of being stuck in traffic, it’s time to envision a new direction and move away from the flow.?

"Vision is the best manifestation of creative imagination and the primary motivation of human action. It’s the ability to see beyond our present reality, to create, to invent what does not yet exist, to become what we not yet are. It gives us capacity to live out of our imagination instead of our memory." ~ Steven Covey

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