How to Chase Shiny Objects

For those aspiring to lead with visionary zeal (and perhaps a touch of strategic ADD), this quick reference guide provides the essential steps for identifying and capturing the shiniest of objects. Struggling in the marketplace? Challenged to keep employees engaged? Some recommend a deliberate approach but...that sounds like a lot of work. Here's how to chase shiny objects.

Step 1: Finding Shiny

The journey begins strategic looking and magical thinking. Forget tedious market research and customer needs assessments--look for the glimmer. This "shiny object" is not simply a good idea; it is a transformative idea. This idea, your idea, has the potential to resolve all existing organizational woes. It's a silver bullet and the best part: no one has ever thought of it before. Tell people the old yarn about Henry Ford not talking with customers because they would have just wanted a faster horse. You have vision. Tell people it's a "no brainer", a "slam dunk", a "home run."

Step 2: Selling Hope

Once the shiny object has been identified, the next step is to imbue it with a messianic level of expectation. Logic and due diligence have no room here. Tell people that "we cannot let perfection be the enemy of the good." Flex your charisma. Wield your positional power. Ask for input but be ready to explain it to them again. They may not get it. Remember, they doubted Einstein too (or was it Edison?). It doesn't matter. The point is this: great ideas are often misunderstood by others. Prophesy success, paint pictures of glory. Throw around your rhetorical weight. Easily dismiss naysayers by pointing out their paralysis from analysis. While the bean counters are frozen, you are moving forward, biased to action.

Step 3: Chase with Enthusiasm

Strap on your running shoes and get warmed up; you don't just run after shiny objects, you chase them. Do not worry. What appears as a flurry of seemingly unrelated activities is your plan. What you lack in coherence, you make up for in enthusiasm. Tell the remaining contrarians that you are creating a entrepreneurial culture. While they labor in the shadows, you run towards the end of the rainbow.

Step 4: Capturing Shiny

Finally! There is nothing like capturing a shiny object after a long chase. Hoist it up high. Show others how incredibly shiny it is. Now, initiate projects with gusto. Call them pilots or minimum viable products or beta tests. Abandoning or even forgetting about them weeks or months later is a sign you are learning by doing. Inconsistency is not a flaw; it is a testament to your agility. Assure people you can also pivot. Some will say constant pivoting is turning in circles but they lack vision. Blame failures on implementation. Point to a lack of buy-in. Get started finding the next shiny object right away.

A Memorable Performance

Chasing shiny objects is a great way to get exercise. Like jumping to conclusions, it gets the blood pumping in a way few things do in the modern workplace. Maintain your fitness for the chase. Your unwavering self-confidence, persuasive rhetoric, and capacity for ignoring doubt will be the wind at your back. Remember that in the grand theater of business, sometimes the most memorable performances are those that leave everyone else wondering what on earth just happened. After all, who needs actual progress when you can embark on a series of dazzling, fun--even if ultimately unproductive--adventures?

Epilogue

I recently was having lunch with a former colleague who expressed frustration, as many do, with a phenomenon in business which many refer to as "chasing shiny objects." My colleague was referring to a former boss who she said liked chasing shiny objects. I asked her, what is the difference between chasing a shiny object and a good idea? This ironic admonishment of this all-to-human tendency (which I have also engaged in) was the result.