A Better Way

We all live with a lot of assumptions about how things should be done.

Assumptions feel comfortable and they save us from having to think. But the moment you accept the status quo without question, you put blinkers on your eyes and miss the opportunity to drive progress.

The idea is simple: we must challenge conventional wisdom to find a better way.

Think about a common practice we all take for granted: pumpkin carving.

Most of us rush to the patch, come home, and proceed with the same, time-honored (and messy) process:

• We cut the lid off the top.
  
• We make a huge mess scooping out the filling.
  
• We nearly burn ourselves trying to place the lit candle down the hole.
  

It was my former business partner, Dan Gilbert, who first shared a different approach with me.

Dan is famous for challenging practices to build successful businesses like Rocket Companies, and he applied the same disruptive thinking to this simple task.

His question was simple: “Why not carve from the bottom?”

Now, consider the bottom-up approach:

• Carve a hole in the bottom, and the mess comes out easily, using gravity to your advantage.
  
• You get to enjoy an original design feature of the pumpkin—the handle on top—for easy transportation.
  
• When it’s time to light up, you place the candle on the carved base and then gently place the pumpkin over the top—no more second-degree burns.
  

When you really look at it, carving from the bottom is the ideal way to complete the task.

The problem is: most of us never stop to think about it.

In our business lives, we follow established methods with blinkers on.

We refuse to challenge the conventional, and we leave the “better way” undiscovered.

Why not open your eyes wide and look for the “pumpkins” in your organization?

Go on a mission to uncover those outdated practices, and find a better way to “carve” them.

The best leaders remain intensely focused on reinvention.