The Secrets to UN-Learning

With the world rapidly changing all around us, how will we have to evolve to keep ourselves prepared for the challenges and opportunities the new paradigm presents? Is it a matter of tinkering with our skill sets, paying more attention to certain technologies and trends, or is it more like a wholesale re-examination of our belief and value systems?

I think it is the latter, and every day that goes by, it seems clear the simple “uncharted-ness” of it all requires this radical step.

What Do We Have To Unlearn?

Our Economics

It requires little imagination to see that our economic system is broken. This does not mean that capitalism is broken, or that by extension socialism is the answer. In fact, it is just that kind of “Either Or” thinking that usually prevents us from seeing gradation. The truth is that capitalism is not broken, just the way we’ve been practicing it. We’ve been tied to a “Zero-Sum” mentality that says that when I win, someone else loses, and vice versa. This creates a false sense of competition in place of something less violent. Instead of seeing everyone as competitors, we’ll need to develop the skills that sees people and entities as community members, and then think of ways to grow the community.

I am struck by how often small businesses I work with anxiously obsess over their competitors; restaurants or venues in their immediate vicinity that they see only as competitors. I am lucky in that I get to work with some of the best businesses who’ve I’ve vetted to ensure they provide a quality product and customer experience. From that standpoint, I can assure them that they have no “competition,” at least in the traditional sense. I tack left and explain that it is FAR more helpful for them to think of their fellow venues as members of their community. From that standpoint, it behooves the business owner to build the community, as a way to build their own business.

This does several things with a goal of practicing a new style of capitalism :

1. They learn to think about the community at the same time they think of themselves, and their own business.
2. They build their own business while also building up the community of businesses of which they are apart.

I’ve heard restaurateurs tell me that there is only a finite amount of money people are willing to spend on food. And they want to capture as much of that money as possible. The way I’ve been responding, and which I believe deep down in my heart, is that if you give customers the experience they deserve, if you reach out to them, if you market them appropriately, where they want to be marketed to, that that finite number grows and grows. It may as well be finite. When I tell them the only thing that is finite is the amount of food they can serve, or how many tables they can turn in a night, their whole perspective changes. And then, when I tell them that the only thing that is finite is the number of restaurants they can open in the next 2 years building on the success of the one or ones they already have, they start to reconsider their own ambitions, and they aim higher.

Image Source: Lee Nachtigal on Flickr

Tagged as: Building Trust, Outside Thinking, Social Media for Small Business