Pandora was given a box by the Greek God Zeus and forbidden
from ever opening it. Of course,
curiosity eventually overcame her. As she prised off the lid, to her horror she
released all the ‘evils’ into our world.
This means that while the root cause of our current economic and
organisational dilemmas can therefore be attributed to Pandora, so can the
cure. As Pandora stared into the vessel, luckily, at the very bottom, one thing
remained.
At every meeting I attend, and training programme I deliver,
the crowd without fail utter the mantra, ‘more for less, more for less, more
for less’. As if saying this over and
over will somehow open up Elysium, the Greek land of plenty. It won’t. The
predominant thinking I witness is; ‘preserve as much as we can, this is the way
we do things, less is more!’
How can you unlock this mindset? The
great breakthrough will come from thinking differently about what you are
doing. Ask, ‘what more can there be?’ Better solutions with great possibilities
do exist for those who look from a different perspective.
A technique to help realise possibilities and great opportunity
is called ‘flip-flop’. Start with a list
of the characteristics of your business, your issue or service. Then ‘flip’ your ‘flop’ to create a new
perspective. Let me help you with an
example: let’s see how this thinking changed the air travel industry for ever:
Characteristics of 1970s
air travel
·
National carriers
·
Expensive
·
Luxury travel available to a few
·
From major city airports
·
All the frills
·
Food and drink included
.... Now, Flip the flop
The Budget Airlines'
new thinking created in the 1990s
·
Small agile carriers
·
Inexpensive
·
Available to almost anyone
·
From regional airports
·
Pay for what you want
·
Buy a sandwich and coffee on board
A highly profitable new market was born.Flip–Flop, try it. Unlock your thinking. Open minds to new opportunities. Release the one thing left in Pandora’s box …
Hope.
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