The Art of Getting Lost

“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be.”— Douglas Adams

We were out buying pumpkins to carve for Halloween.

We decided to take a road we had never taken before.

We drove by the skeleton on the bike in the picture above and we were soon delightfully lost without a clear sense of the way home.

We saw many other sights we would have never seen without getting purposefully lost.

Exceptional leaders are also very willing to go down unexplored roads. Consider these simple best practices for exploring your organization with new eyes.

• Come in at a completely different time of day.
• Work in a different office space for a week.
• Talk to people in other departments, or even companies, who you have never talked to before.
• Ask people in your organization new questions. For example, ask people to list ten ways to make things worse for your customers.
• Create some artwork, such as a wireframe, of a new product feature that is whimsical. Show it to some trusted customers and see where the conversation leads.

On our drive, we refused to seek GPS assistance. In time we found a familiar road and our way home.

On your trip down new roads, embrace the sensation of feeling a bit lost. You will return home with new perspectives and new ideas.

Yours in the calm pursuit of excellence,

Alan Willett