Differentiation & The Elevator Test
“How do I truly separate myself from all others in my category?”
“What can we do to be so different, no one would ever mistake us for any of our competitors?”
These are common questions from a lot of well-intentioned folks I run into on the speaking circuit or when coaching CEO’s and their executive teams. The same questions being asked by small business owners or solopreneurs entering a new field or industry, struggling to understand their competitive landscape.
In other words, everyone and his cocker spaniel wants to know: "How on earth am I going to stand out in this waaay overcrowded, jammed & crammed, me-too market?"
The answer is simpler than people think.
Simple.
Not necessarily easy.
It just takes a little time to fully digest it and recognize how it applies to your world. If you’re prepared to invest – just a little bit - I’m willing to share what the first social scientist who actually took the time, wound up discovering about this subject of Differentiation.
If you truly thirst to vividly see invisible behavioural forces that dictate our human ability, capacity and willingness to go out on a limb; to dare to be different and step off the business, social, cultural, political or branding edge; then you will want to pass The Elevator Test with flying colors.
In the Classroom called Understanding, we already know that for centuries, people have admired those who went to the ledge and stepped off. Willing to stand alone.
Leaders like Lincoln, Churchill, Gandhi, Thatcher, Terry Fox, Rosa Parks, Mandela and Martin Luther King.
Musicians like Mozart, Elvis, Dylan, Hendrix, The Beatles, Johnny Cash, The Dixie Chicks and Eminem. The recently departed Lemmy, Bowie and Prince can also be included in the conversation.
In business, we’ve seen people and companies like Disney, Harley-Davidson, Steve Jobs, Ted Turner, Oprah and Sir Richard Branson push the originality envelope. Today, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Reed Hastings of Netflix and Tesla’s Elon Musk are high-flying unicorns of the modern age; all Space-X unique in their approach.
Whether its Warren Buffet or Jimmy Buffet, we tend to admire those we see as having possession of two powerful and near mystical human qualities:
1. VISION: The ability to actually see a need and figure out new and different solutions or art forms.
2. GUTS: The unmitigated and unbridled courage to risk it all and dive in head first. The confidence to leap without a net; not knowing the outcome and not caring what anyone else thinks.
Many would love to take those kind of chances in their own lives or careers, but tend not to’ preferring to live vicariously through the speeches and the music; the products and services these visionary leaders have created and provided.
But, if you want to fully grasp what makes each one of these people and their companies remarkably different – and create the same for yourself in the competitive space you currently occupy, the solution lies in asking an entirely new question.
STOP ASKING: “What makes people and companies different?”
START ASKING: “What makes people and companies refuse to conform”?
Differentiation and Conformity are like two sides of the same coin.
You can’t lean in one direction without moving away from the other.
This is what a social scientist who left his native Poland before the Nazi invasion discovered with his original, ground-breaking research in the 1950’s. Solomon Asch was curious to learn how social forces could alter people's opinions to do things like sacrifice for the war effort or line up in straight rows, wear steel helmets and offer stiff-armed salutes.
Solomon’s studies proved that when we are gathered in groups, most people are hard-wired to “follow the crowd”; even when having the freedom of choice. His series of experiments with American university students were re-worked in 1962, when the hit television show Candid Camera leveraged the Asch Conformity Experiment to reveal how we actually tend to behave in any group situation.
In exactly 2:38 seconds you will understand something at a much deeper level about your own behaviour.
You will also understand what your competitors are going through in any market space.
We laugh when these people are manipulated like puppets on strings, but The Asch Conformity Experiment should serve to make us glaringly aware of everyday situations in which we blindly and mindlessly follow group norms.
- Its little wonder why so many politicians today deliver the same lame speeches, peppered with the vanilla of safe and shallow bromides.
- It’s no surprise why so many audition-trained musicians who never learned their craft in a garage favor recycling tried and true “hit-making” formulas.
Our deep-rooted need to Conform is why so many companies – including those in your space - offer not only similar products at similar prices, but spew the same re-heated, regurgitated marketing language to describe what they do. Plain-Jane ad-speak promises of “fast, friendly reliable service with friendly and knowledgeable staff” or lofty and pompous Corporate Mission Speak that natters on about “delivering value and prosperity for all stakeholders within new paradigms of excellence and integrity”.
This is what is known as "gag with spoon"or "stick sharp fork in eye" territory.
Far too often, companies and the people who run them mistake artful or slick packaging of meaningless cliches and hype as true differentiation.
And here is what is not-so-funny.
Some of us let others to convince us to swallow that garbage.
Some of us actually allow and permit perfunctory parrots in polished shoes who wear impeccable suits and carry impressive degrees to force us to sound and look like everyone else.
But, the joke is really on us when we allow ourselves; our companies and careers to ride the same invisible yet insidious elevator of conformity; all the way to the bottom.
Just like everybody else.
What Solomon Asch discovered is this:
“When people are free to do as they like, they usually imitate each other”
To truly appreciate the forces that create Differentiation it more valuable to understand how much we are naturally pre-disposed and hard-wired to conform.
Recognize the problem and you are more than half way to the solution.
Here are three things you might want to consider to pass the Elevator Test:
1. Embrace Change.
Be deliberately different about your routine. Since creative people are nonconformists to begin with, be intentional about refusing to follow a familiar path. In his best-selling book Iconoclast, neuroscientist Gregory Berns suggests we “bombard the brain with new experiences,” which scrambles existing categories and forges new connections. Take a different route to work. Ride the bus. Travel abroad. Listen to jazz. Or the next time you go to a seminar, be the first to sit in the front row. The more intentional you are about these small changes in routine, the better. Being deliberate about changing small behaviours prepares you for the day when you need to make big decisions about substantial change.
2. Embrace Solitude.
To be original you will need to daydream a little which is impossible in a wired world of open offices and constant connection. Go fishing. Play golf solo and carry your clubs for 18 holes. Walk, run, escape into nature or grab a notebook and sit on a park bench to give yourself precious time to ponder and reflect.
3. Embrace F.E.A.R.
Typically our human need to conform is deeply rooted in our individual family, social and cultural backgrounds. Many of these beliefs tend to be illogical, fear-based and rarely subjected to the scrutiny of detached, independent second-thought. But, if you do happen to be one of those people who can see things differently from other people - to see what others do no – you will need to conquer the Lizard Brain and its reptilian responses to fear of failure, the unknown or of ridicule. The more you lean into the fear and face it; the more you discover fear to be what it really is.
FALSE.
EXPECTATION.
ABOUT.
RISK.
The quest for Differentiation for any company or career is one that can last a lifetime for people who feel trapped by conventional thinking and want to escape. Part of the human condition often has stuck in the muck between who we are and who we want to be.
Unless you think you can bore people into buying your product, service or ideas, the subject of Differentiation is of zero use to you. But, how can anyone of us reasonably expect to stand at the Front of the Line when we make daily, subconscious choices to Face the Rear? To blindly ride the elevator of our own category and not give a second thought to stepping out on our own is a choice we make.
The Wisdom of Solomon confirms that none of us will ever discover a new direction by looking harder in the same direction.
Your next Elevator Test is likely to happen later this day or this week.
But, now you possess answers to the exam.
Hope you use them to re-create and re-imaginate the business, the brand or the career that you deserve.
“A long time ago, when the Earth was green, there was more kinds of animals than you've ever seen. They'd run around free while the Earth was being born... and the loveliest of all was the unicorn ..." SHEL SILVERSTEIN
p.s.... In the 1950's a young Johnny Cash was told by Sun Records boss Sam Phillips to stop riding the elevator of the gospel music category and sing what was in his heart ...
p.p. s... Natalie Maines and The Dixie Chicks made a decision NOT to ride the elevator the rest of the music industry was riding back in 2006. The choice involved some remarks about the Commander-in-Chief during a concert in England when Maines told the audience how ashamed she was that President Bush was from their home state of Texas.
The fallout continues to this day.
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