Great Recoveries
At IDEO, our Zero20 group attracts a lot of Hurdlers- or brings out that role in people. They’ve created plenty of fun and successful toys, from the high-flying Estes rocket that records its altitude to the Fib Finder game that tells whether your opponent is bluffing. It’s an amazingly fast-paced business. They pitch hundreds of toy concepts a year, brainstorming nearly every day, and are constantly sketching and prototyping new ideas. The chances of a big hit are low, the budgets tight, the deadlines tighter still. They push the limits so often that it seems as if they are perpetually riding the edge of failure. Like all serious innovators, they have their share of near disasters. But what distinguishes them is they never seem to look down, even when they’re walking a tightrope.
How you react to a potential disaster determines your chances of recovery and success. Hurdlers by nature seem to handle challenges the same way great athletes respond to tough competition. Jeff Grant, a key member of our Zero20 team, often demonstrates the Hurdler’s knack. One day a few years ago, he flew into New York in anticipation of a critical presentation the next morning with a well-known toy company. Sitting down to a late dinner with a colleague at their hotel in midtown Manhattan, Jeff casually booted up his laptop to review his presentation-and got zilch. The operating system wouldn’t start up. They had no backup and no way of accessing the vital material locked within the computer.
There was no time for panic. Toy entrepreneurs don’t think that way. But at 11P.M., the odds of finding and installing a new operating system in time for an early-morning meeting seemed long. Racing through possible solutions in his mind, Jeff glanced out the window and spied a computer store on the street. He jumped into the elevator and ran across the street, but the manager had just closed up shop. From behind the protection of his security gate, the store manager suggested Jeff try Borders bookstore, so off he ran. Borders was still open, but out of the Windows operating system. In the aisles, a tough-looking guy with a linebacker’s build overheard Jeff’s urgent conversation with the Border’s clerk and mentioned that he had a fresh copy of Windows at home. Jeff didn’t think twice-even in New York City, where wise people are wary of strangers. He followed the big guy back to his apartment and spent four hours trying to get the operating system up and running. That got him partly there, and at 7 A.M., when the hotel’s IT group showed up for work, Jeff enlisted their help in downloading the remaining files. By 7:30, at the last possible moment, the presentation came to life on his laptop, and Jeff sped off in a cab to the meeting. At 8 o’clock sharp, the tired-but-relieved team made it’s presentation-and sold a toy idea called Real-Action Boxing to Playmates toys, before collapsing in near exhaustion at their hotel.
Jeff’s fearless moxie is a great example of the can-do spirit of the Hurdler. Consider how you might celebrate comebacks from the Hurdlers in your group. You’ll probably find team members less anxious on high-pressure projects, and more confident of success.