Beyond Data

In the early 1700's—a curious, intelligent and good natured soul by the name of Ben Franklin was faced with a problem.  In his time spent working with agriculture, he had made a simple discovery.  He discovered that plaster made grains and grasses grow better.  The problem was that his neighbors did not believe him.

So, Ben did the logical thing any resourceful individual would to.  He fired up Powerpoint—called his local Forrester representative and started methodically making his case for plaster using charts and stats to back it all up.

No, actually he didn't.  Microsoft and Forrester weren't around back then.  What he did do was get his hands dirty.  Literally.  When spring arrived, he went to a field that was close to a path where people would walk by regularly.  He then dug out some letters into the dirt with his hands, put plaster in the ruts and planted some seeds in them.

Time passed and as people walked by the field, they could see this message emerging in a brighter shade of grass that stood out from the rest of the field:

THIS HAS BEEN PLASTERED

Ben's neighbors got the point.  Here's the sixty four thousand dollar question.  If Ben were alive today, working for a large company with the typical corporate culture in place—would he have been asked to supply a research document/deck in spite of the fact that he had just proven his point?  Don't get me wrong.  We shouldn't do away with research.  Quantitative and qualitative research is critical to pretty much any industry around.  What I'm asking, is do we encourage enough demonstrating?  Do we reward people when they take matters into their own hands to prove that an idea might be worth something?  Our do we get upset that they've bypassed conventional procedures? 

Comments

[Roger von Oech]

Depends on the size of the organization. I've always liked what software visionary Alan Kay said:

"Any company large enough to have a research lab is too large to listen to it."

This insight probably applies to your question.

Roger von Oech

[Cam Beck]

David - Any word on what possessed Franklin to experiment with plaster in this manner?

[peter vajda]

Think it also depends on the core values of the organization e.g., one's perspective on risk-taking, intrapreneuring, mistake-making and failure, power and control, ego, experimentation, stakeholder reactivity, comfort level with the "unkown", and the like.

[David Armano]

Cam, I didn't come across tha back story. I'm reading the 21 Indispensible Qualities of a Leader, and that's where I came across the story. Maybe it was through experimentation?

Peter, the core values of an organization probably has something to do with it, pending that an organization actually lives by them.

Nice quote Roger. So what's the point of research if a large organization doesn't actually listen to it? Does it make us feel better? Do you use quantitative research in your creativity worshops?

[Robert Hruzek]

David, this is the conundrum I'm faced with - I'd LIKE my organization to start internal blogs (personal and project), but I'm not an IT guy, and I don't have any stroke in that department.

I KNOW it will help - but we're rather "risk averse" here (read: "status quo"). The leadership SAYS they want ideas, but how do I illustrate the power of blogging for communication and community within the company?

I've been wrestling with that for months - in fact, it's one of the reasons I started blogging - to find out "what this blog thing was all about".

[Graham Hill]

David

This is much bigger than just the analysis vs. demonstrating question you pose. In the uncertain world we live in, this is how we do strategy formulation today - as a series of strategic experiments to learn what works, by doing it on a small scale first.

Graham Hill

[Michael Wagner]

David, Ben is certainly a favorite of mine.

I believe he was the first "open-source" Founding Father as well.

He never applied for patents for things like the Franklin stove (which would have made him a lot of money).

Instead he believed in giving his discoveries back for the common good.

Others refined his stove but he put the "kernel" idea out there to be improved upon. And it was.

Keep creating,
Mike

[Valeria Maltoni]

We do have the courage to demonstrate, although I've had many a conversation with corporate people, even at high levels, who shared they do so cautiously -- making sure nobody's feathers get too ruffled. People are quite territorial.

Many organizations do not have any procedures to capture good ideas and take them to market. With the consistent cut backs in staff and resources (see save your way to prosperity), there is hardly any time to dig yourself out of the everyday stuff. And colleagues rarely enter a conversation open to changing their minds... familiarity can breed contempt even at work.

That's why blogs exist, why we start companies, why we break out on our own, etc. Having written all that, we should never stop finding new ways to take the proverbial horse to the water.

[Lewis Green]

Valeria is correct. A process needs to be in place to encourage and to capture ideas and innovation. If you haven't read "Built to Last," (shame on you), check out how 3M does it.

[DA]

Hmmmm, good food for thought here. I always wonder if it's formal process and procedures that embrace this or a general culture. Maybe it's both.

Lewis, Built to Last is on the list. I'm a fast writer and slow reader.

[Scott Weisbrod]

Great thinking here, David. I've shared this with the rest of my insight and planning team.

Cheers,
Scott

[DA]

Scott, I have a feeling I know why. ;)

[gabby]

Heh -- our I&P department meeting covered this topic just yesterday! And I *totally* thought about this post during one presentation.