{"id":72116,"date":"2019-10-24T19:14:08","date_gmt":"2019-10-25T03:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/?p=72116"},"modified":"2019-10-28T19:06:54","modified_gmt":"2019-10-29T03:06:54","slug":"shatter-barriers-and-create-breakthrough-opportunities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/shatter-barriers-and-create-breakthrough-opportunities\/","title":{"rendered":"The Myth of the 4-Minute Mile: How to Shatter Barriers and Create Breakthrough Opportunities"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

The world we live in is becoming increasingly complex and uncertain. And with it, the conventional thinking of yesterday is no longer sufficient. Creating real, breakthrough opportunities requires a fundamental change in our thinking. As Einstein said, \u201cWe can\u2019t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s no better example of this than the myth of the four-minute mile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For centuries, runners had been attempting to run a mile in under four minutes. In the 1950s, the quest to break the barrier took on renewed importance, and a number of famous runners publicly and unsuccessfully attempted the challenge. Many of the newspapers of the day began to question whether humans would ever be able to run a sub-four-minute mile. Then, in 1954, a man named Roger Bannister did the unthinkable. He broke through the imaginary barrier, running the mile in 3 minutes and 59.4 seconds. It was an amazing achievement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But here\u2019s what\u2019s really interesting: it was only forty-six days later that another runner broke Bannister\u2019s record. And the following year, two new runners broke the four-minute mark in the same race. Dozens followed, and as of this writing, more than 1,400 runners have accomplished the feat, including one runner who ran two miles in less than eight minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did something change with respect to human anatomy, track conditions, weather patterns, running shoes, or the human diet between the start of Bannister\u2019s race and the few years that followed? No. So what explains the sudden and dramatic explosion of athletic achievement?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The myth\u2019s hypnotic power over runners had lifted. What Bannister had done was not just break the four-minute-mile barrier; he shattered the myth that created the barrier in the first place. This paradigm had offered a limited set of actions available for runners to take. With the paradigm no longer in place, a whole new set of actions became available. Runners were literally free to run through the invented boundary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Imagine, if you will, that a runner came along and ran a sub-three-minute mile. Impossible, right? Yet, all of a sudden, the actions runners would take\u2014that they could now see as available to them\u2014would shift immediately. Training regimens, diets, running styles would all be examined, reconsidered, and tinkered with. All of this would happen because a new paradigm had replaced an old one that had locked runners into conventional ways of running. Runners would now be running in a new world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Creating breakthroughs requires shattering the myths and paradigms that constrain our imagination and lock us into conventional thinking. Here\u2019s an example from the business world, in one of my roles as CEO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shattering Invisible Barriers in Business<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The organization I had joined was operating in a highly regulatory environment; compliance was an essential part of our culture. We simply could not afford to make mistakes. Doing so could shut down our business. It was sometimes frustrating to adhere to the laws and regulations of our industry, but it inspired a strong attention to detail and accountability to high standards. At the same time, however, there were shadow effects from our emphasis on compliance. One area, in particular, was employee relations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the years, the organization had become so concerned with the risk of employee lawsuits that it increasingly avoided having honest employee development conversations. This, in turn, led to a dearth (and sometimes complete absence) of written communications documenting performance issues. Given the lack of written evidence, managers felt unable to dismiss employees who were underperforming or, in some cases, who had committed grievous errors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I joined the organization as CEO, this vicious cycle had been in place for years. Almost immediately, I began to question why we were tolerating underperformance and why we weren\u2019t doing a better job having very direct, yet kind, conversations with members of our team who weren\u2019t meeting expectations. Although I didn\u2019t know it at the time, I was playing the role of \u201cthe fish who could see the water.\u201d I had enough wisdom, courage, and tolerance for risk to challenge how things had been done for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my second month in the role, I was preparing to host a one-day meeting with our top one hundred leaders. This would be the first time I was in front of all of our top employees. I knew I had to say something about this issue. We simply had to raise our level of performance if we were going to stay in business, let alone succeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The day before the meeting, I called our general counsel, whom I\u2019ll call Lisa. \u201cLisa,\u201d I said, \u201cI need to know by the end of the day how many employee lawsuits we\u2019ve had in the last twelve months, how many have gone to trial, how many have settled, and how much we\u2019ve spent in judgments and settlements from those lawsuits.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lisa called me back within the hour. \u201cDarren, you\u2019re not going to believe this,\u201d she said. \u201cI went back over the last five years. An average of nine employees sue each year. None have ever gone to trial. The average amount we spend each year in settling these lawsuits is about $100,000, and most of that is covered by our insurance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I couldn\u2019t believe it. An organization of more than 3,000 employees was being held hostage and suffering through massive underperformance without facing any material financial risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next day, I started my remarks with an inspiring story of how we were going to reinvent our industry and realize our bold mission. I could see that virtually all one hundred people in the room were engaged and onboard. And then I paused. I said that there was no way we were going to achieve this vision if we continued to be afraid of having direct conversations with one another and hold one another accountable to high standards of performance. The days of not having those conversations were over, I asserted, as was the unwillingness to terminate employees who were not meeting the clear expectations of their roles (provided we had communicated with them in an ongoing, direct, and honest manner).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few people raised their hands and offered reasons why this wasn\u2019t possible. I thanked them for their honesty and courage in speaking up, reassured them I was listening (which I was), and then told them we had no choice. The decision had been made. The myth that we couldn\u2019t have tough conversations and let people go when they weren\u2019t performing to clear and reasonable expectations had been shattered. The vicious cycle had been disrupted, and my choice to question the deeply held beliefs of the organization had provided the conditions for a new virtuous cycle\u2014a new paradigm\u2014to emerge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Think about your own situation. What paradigm are you stuck in? What would it take to question the everyday assumptions that lock you into a conventional way of thinking? And what would be possible if you had the courage to challenge the myths and paradigms that seem obvious to everyone else?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The world we live in is becoming increasingly complex and uncertain. And with it, the conventional thinking of yesterday is no longer sufficient. Creating real, breakthrough opportunities requires a fundamental change in our thinking. 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