Listen to the Intern!
Don’t let old thinking block you from hearing new ideas… like I did!
I got paid $35,000 for 90 minutes to tell them what they needed to hear.
Then I went back to my own office and failed to follow my own advice.
“Never stop innovating,” I exhorted them.
“Embrace the scary stuff,” I pontificated.
“And especially, let go of any biases or ageist entitlements that might keep you from seeing when the $25 an hour intern in your team meeting brings the smartest idea to the table.”
Six hundred Senior Sales Leaders listened intently while taking notes; discussed earnestly in small practice pods; and applauded enthusiastically as their CEO thanked me in his closing remarks at the SKO. The company was grappling to keep pace with that pesky, persistent pattern of non-stop change in their technology-dependent business. And these leaders were tasked with finding ways to make Embracing Change Thru Tech Adoption & Adaptation the standard among the client-focused teams in their Divisions.
🔸 Disruption Sucks
I knew their angst first hand (albeit on a lesser scale). The year was 2017. My corporate sales training business, which I’d been running smoothly and profitably for over 20 years, was suddenly at risk of becoming non-competitive… and maybe even irrelevant.
A slew of innovative Learning Management Systems (LMS) had entered the market, establishing tech-enabled training and digital marketing as the new “de rigeur” standards in my industry.
“But, but, but…” I wanted to whine at the world! “But… we’ve got proven, quality content and a track record of major successes!”
The market didn’t care. And while I knew that adopting such innovations would likely be costly and time consuming, I had to get on board… or get left behind.
🔸 Gravitating to the Tried & True
My first call was to the former CMO of a global Food & Beverage company. Being newly retired, and available as a part-time marketing guru, she paid a visit to my small office in Connecticut.
“Surely,” I reasoned, “her deep roots in how business has been done will show me the way forward….”
🔸 Unexpected Input
Serendipitiously, I’d just hired a newly-minted MBA from a prestigious university; we’ll call her McCovey. Sitting just feet away from my office door, McCovey couldn’t NOT hear the retired CMO from “Big Brand Company” share her thoughts—and her $25,000 proposal on how to build and market online learning.
A lot of “Big Brand” CMO’s ideas were oddly familiar, which made me feel smart… but also curious about how doing the same thing I knew to do would make a difference. I thanked the CMO and said I’d consider her proposal.
After she’d gone, McCovey knocked cautiously on my door. “I couldn’t help but overhear,” she offered with a tone of apology, “but I think what you might really need is this…”
McCovey turned around the laptop that she’d brought from her desk. There on her screen was an affordable, DIY learning platform replete with email marketing integrations.
“If you’d let me, I’d love to take one of your smaller skills programs, like Business Writing, and trick this platform out and set up a mailing to prospective buyers. It’ll be done pretty quickly…?”
🔸 Sticking with the Known Gets You Stuck
Friends, this story does not have a happy ending… unless you factor in the sobering reminder I carry of the perils of filtering new ideas through a lens of fear-of-the-new, not-invented-here, not-how-we-do-it impatience.
No… I did not take the “Big Brand” CMO up on her expensive proposal. Worse! I called in a different Tried-and-True Marketing Guru, this one from Manhattan (so, he had to know better than I or my team, right?!). After four weeks and $10,000, he basically patted me on the head and recommended I “stick to my knitting.” In other words, “Do it the way you’ve always done it, but do it harder and better.”
What I did NOT do is allow my newly minted MBA from a prestigious university to “play” with the new-fangled technology in ways that would have made her smile… and might have launched me early into the online learning market looooong before it got so crowded.
🔸 Tolerance for Change Is a Talent
I knew that adopting and implementing such innovations would likely be costly and time-consuming. But those factors were NOT, in fact, the true challenges that held me back.
In the long run, my failure to make the timely shift was my reluctance to lean into newness; to have my thinking challenged; to patiently humble myself and become the student again; to groan through the physical nausea that can come with rewiring my brain for the whole new language of tech-speak.
I failed to understand that my future success was not going to be measured on how things HAD BEEN done; a new paradigm of success was emerging, making it more important to embrace what CAN BE done, what WILL BE done.
🔸 Do Better Than I Did!
If YOU are facing disruptive change, I beg you: do better than I did! Your success depends on learning to ride the wave of never-ending change.
Oh… and listen to your Interns!
Put These Ideas to Work
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