??? Pattern Interrupt

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This is an extract from the edition of the Insanely Profitable Tech newsletter that went out on 16 Sept 2024 - it's my weekly firecracker to the Squirrel Squadron packed with provocative thoughts and tips. The full version has this and more - it’s all free! - just sign up here to get it first: https://squirrelsquadron.com/

Are you a little shocked? Surprised? Bewildered? If you’re used to reading (or skipping past!) my standard newsletter opening, the highlighted special announcement above probably threw you off your stride–as it was designed to. A change of opening isn’t a big shift, but it’s enough to break up your comfortable coherence and get your neurons into System 2 mode, asking “what’s Squirrel up to now??” – and might tweak your interest enough to sign up! Sales and marketing folks call this a “pattern interrupt” and they use it everywhere from clickbait titles (remember “one weird trick”?) to TV ads (whose audio is compressed so they’re louder than the programme) to cold calls (“Can I steal 27 seconds?”). Our brains are hard-wired not only to pay more attention when we’re startled, but to think harder and more creatively.

Pattern interrupts are a powerful tool for leadership too, if done right. A spectacular recent example is Kamala Harris striding across the stage at the start of last week’s US presidential debate to introduce herself to her opponent with an unexpected handshake. President Trump was so stunned by this confident gesture that could only stammer out the words “nice to see you, have fun” in reply, which can hardly be the tough tone he intended to adopt. I take no political positions here in the Squirrel Squadron, but whatever your opinion of the candidates, I’m sure you’ll agree Harris’s tactic was very effective in changing the script for the evening. In a similar way, Paul O’Neill stunned a room of analysts in 1987 by promising that, as Alcoa’s new CEO, he would be focussing not on profits or balance sheets, but worker safety. And Princess Diana broke the pattern of stigma and fear of HIV by touching and hugging AIDS patients when she met them. In each case, a contrarian action by a leader draws attention to a new direction, and the very surprise it entails prepares the audience mentally for a big change.

Now you might think that engineers, who often talk about “the state of flow” and avoiding “context switches”, would be particularly resistant to the pattern interrupt; despite the fact that computers swap tasks thousands of times per second, their programmers are hardly fans of shifting gears! But that’s not what I’ve found at all:

• At Osper, I sent a grumpy coder onto the customer service desk to answer the phone and he came back thrilled about helping kids.?
• A fintech client of mine started visibly rewarding tech and marketing experiments and the developers responded with loads of new ideas.?
• And a large retail service firm I’m advising made weekly accountability a requirement for technical leads, not only getting vigorous compliance but rapid responses to reported blockers too.?

My theory is that the “clean break” afforded by a sharp pattern interrupt brings singular clarity, and that’s exactly what 1s-and-0s thinkers like us engineers need to understand and align with your leadership goals. What could you do today to flabbergast your team and reset their expectations?

Let me know your thoughts, and don’t forget to sign up to get the next one direct to your inbox first with even more content!

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