Page 154 - 6 Secrets to Startup Success

Startup Agility 133

9 Allow solutions to come through a process. Shaun says that his
conceiving is always the result of an iterative process. “It’s
never just sitting down and thinking of a good idea or coming
up with a way to solve a problem. It’s always the result of a
process that might begin with something weird or accidental
but then builds and improves over time.”

9 Look through the lens of potential instead of rejection. Shaun
works with leaders to help them “develop a lens that will allow
them to see the potential in almost anything instead of reject-
ing it instantly.” Every iteration of an idea, he says, “contains a
nugget of potential that can lead you to another iteration of
the idea. So in that sense, nothing you do is ever wasted.”

9 Don’t settle too soon. Shaun believes that too many people are
content with early ideas, rather than pushing themselves to
higher standards. “I think people settle way too soon,” he says.
“They’re hell bent on coming up with the answer right now,
instead of allowing it to develop and reveal itself. So, this idea
of ‘not settling’ is very important to me. If you become static,
you’re lost.”

9 Push for improvement until the very end. Early in his career,
just before graduate school in England, Shaun worked for Sir
Anthony Caro, a legendary abstract sculptor, who would
sometimes force radical changes at the last possible moment.
“He would force us to weld these big sculptures. They would
take six months, sometimes, and we would think we were
closing in and finished. And if he thought there was a 1 per-
cent chance that we could make these sculptures better, he
would have us drag out the torch and cut these things in half,
and flip them upside down. He would force us to make in-
credibly radical moves very, very late in the process. So this
notion of laying it on the line all the way through the process,
not just the beginning and the middle, but even at the end,
in order to make something innovative and breathtaking, that
was a real education.”

American Management Association • www.amanet.org