Who Wants to Be a Dead Armadillo?

I love group ideating and thought-building sessions, and I detest groupthink. Frankly, it drives me crazy when we have group sessions, and people sit and don’t contribute at all. Shy? Just not engaged? Whatever…

A well-run gathering with the right people and topic can achieve wonders—even change the world. A clusterFK…wastes people's time, pisses them off, and sets back the cause.

To make it work and be productive, in group situations, someone or multiple someones have to drive a stake or multiple stakes in the ground and take a strong stand, or nothing ever gets done.

What are those stakes??

• It could be adherence to a process or a timetable.
• It could be a strategy or an idea.
• It could be deciding to hold back for more information.
• It could be a decision to increase the stakes or the reverse—to pull them out and walk away.

In all instances, someone had to leave the huddle and warmth of the group and boldly move from the center and begin to establish new boundaries and borders and expand the envelope to push against.

I said boldly, but that’s not always necessary. It really makes no difference...so long as you do it, as long as you step out. Sometimes, we have to be tentative; other times, we can be assertive and aggressive. Just as long as we don’t get paralyzed and lulled by the false comfort and fleeting safety of the center huddle.

False comfort? Fleeting safety? Why? Who says I have to step out? Who determined that I can’t stay in the center...be a middle roader...a go-with-the-flow type...a wave surfer, not a wave maker?

Here's the point. Clients pay us for our ideas, our opinions, our POV, our best and most profound and most radical thinking. They pay us to step beyond their own borders and to establish new outposts that help to supercharge the game, up the ante, and change the paradigm of engagement.?

Sure...it’s easy to get away with less, but here is the danger: Stay in the center, and you become vulnerable on all sides.

Move the stakes, expand the limits, and you'll protect yourself while doing a better job.

Of course, I have a quote to help drive this stake in the ground.

“He who walks in the middle of the road gets hit from both sides.” —George P. Schultz

The truth is that this sentiment has been given lots of expression. Margaret Thatcher, for one, had her own twist on the same thought. However, I saw one from a uniquely American source that made me share two quotes this week.

“There’s nothing in the middle of the road but yellow stripes and dead armadillos.” —Jim Hightower

I don’t know about you, but being “roadkill” is not my ideal business situation.

Leave the yellow, and don’t risk becoming a flattened armadillo... The edges are calling out for you, and there is no lack of ground for those stakes!

What's your view??