Don't fight stupid - make more awesome
Tuesday, March 4, 2014 at 12:13PM Ask any of the talented improvisers at Impro Melbourne and they'll tell you that 'yes' is an almost magic word. When they're on stage, making things up, for the entertainment of an audience, they live for hearing a 'yes' from their fellow performers.
'Yes...' allows them to build on, add to and develop a story line, an idea, a thought.
Whereas a 'no' hits them like a bat over the head! Thud! Momentum stopped.
It's harder to be creative, innovative or do your best work if you keep bumping into 'no'.
At the Agile India conference I attended and presented at this past week, keynote speaker Martin Fowler mentioned in his presentation on 'Software Design in the 21st Century' the sweet phrase of 'don't fight stupid; make more awesome'.
Looking into the phrase more, I found that Jesse Robbins, from the same sort of technology field said this and uses it as somewhat of a philosophy.
Jesse said:
“If you keep bumping into ‘no,’ and the organization makes it hard to get to ‘yes,’ you are going to have a long, slow, painful death. Get out of there!
“Every time I tried to win over stupid, I regretted it. On the other hand, every time I’ve gotten people to swing around and build a movement, I remember all those moments and felt good every day, no matter how hard I worked.”
If you're battling against some no's where you are at the moment:
- Yield.
- Shift.
- Pivot.
Head off over there, in that direction and make awesome things happen, using your expertise, your capabilities and your knowing that you are on to something brilliant.
Yes. Go for it. Make more awesome. We're waiting for it. 