Excuses

You can't be fast if you are weighed down by the heavy anchor of "why we can't."

“The number of excuses you make should never exceed the solutions you find.” - Futurist Jim Carroll

Why might your excuses kill your future?

That was a thought that crossed my mind and that I gave a shoutout to while on stage in Florida yesterday. I wanted to get across to the audience that the vast scope of change in the manufacturing world means they need to get involved with tomorrow, today. They can’t just put some barriers in place and hope that the future goes away.

With that in mind, are you guilty of the same thing?

Stop for a moment. Look at your last team meeting. Look at your inbox. Look in the mirror.

What’s the ratio of excuses to solutions?

We live in an era of acceleration. I’ve been saying it on stage for years: Fast beats slow. Bold beats old. But you can’t be fast if you are weighed down by the heavy anchor of “why we can’t.“ That’s one of the key excuses to be found on my innovation killers list.

When on stage, I often talk about “organizational sclerosis.” That’s the deadly, creeping disease where a company’s arteries get clogged up with process, bureaucracy, and fear - and excuses. It’s what happens when the “Innovation Killers” take over the culture.

You know the phrases. I’ve cataloged them. They are the soundtrack of aggressive indecision: