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Paul B. Brown, Contributor

I write on the best ways to prepare for the future -- by creating it.

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5/25/2013 @ 6:00AM |276 views

How To See What Others Don't (In Order To Increase Your Chances of Success)

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Seeing What Others Don’t is not only the title of new book by Gary Klein, it is also a mantra that can make you successful.

Let’s deal with the book first and then my assertion.

Although I have never met him, I have been a fan of Klein for years. He is a very smart guy who is a senior scientist at MacroCognition and he begins his latest book with a simple formula.

Performance Improvements = Less Errors + More Insights.

Invariably large companies (and I would argue too many small ones as well) concentrate on reducing errors.

Yes, of course, you want to be more efficient.  But in the process you invariably limit insights.

Klein explains it well.

“Organizations stifle insights because of forces locked deep inside their DNA: They value predictability, they recoil from surprises, and they crave perfection, the absence of errors. Surprises and errors can lay havoc with plans and with smooth operations.”

And so companies play it safe and try to make things as predictable as posible.

The problem of course is nothing very exciting comes from playing it safe.

Let us suggest a different approach. Instead of looking ways to reduce mistakes, search for ways to come up with HUGE insights.

Note that I said come up with a big “insight” and not “a big idea.”

As we have talked about before, good ideas—and even GREAT ideas—are incredibly commonplace and are not worth very much. You and I can come up with wonderful ideas all day long but unless they satisfy a large enough need, one that can support a business, they don’t do any one any good.

That’s why you always want to start with a market need. Having an insight into what the market wants–and is willing to pay for–puts you far ahead of someone who comes up with a need and then sets off to see if anyone is interested.

As you go looking for insights–i.e. market needs–don’t take the corporate route and play it safe.  At least not initially.  Look for the BIGGEST market need you can find.  You can always scale it back if you have to in case it beyond your capabilities or it will take too long to address.

It is relatively easy to make a big idea smaller–you can limit the markets you serve and the features you offer, for example.

But by starting off searching for the big insight you will invariably comes across more opportunities–things others have missed–than if you start small and try to add on. 

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Paul B. Brown is co-author of Just Start published by Harvard BusinessReview Press. Please note his blog appears every Sunday and Wednesday, with the occasional extra post like today. Click on the “Following” button to get every new blog post as soon as its goes live.