BETTER ergo DIFFERENT ergo COURAGE…
- Apr 4, 2019
- 2 min read
The title above means…
BETTER therefore DIFFERENT therefore COURAGE.
The above title and thinking is from Amar Bose, the founder of Bose Corporation. Dr. Bose was an amazing man, a genuine role model, and a prolific inventor.
An interesting 4 minute video of Dr. Bose talking about this subject is at:
Dr. Bose was specifically talking about Bose’s research efforts to come up with significant new ideas. He said:
“You have to have the courage to be different. You can never do anything better, unless it is different. That is an impossibility.”
What does this mean from The Process Perspective?
To create a new and robust manufacturing process it WILL HAVE to be different than the existing process/materials. This is the only way to improve a process (either a new process or an existing one).
A different process MAY or MAY NOT work, depending on the inherent practicality and the ability to come up with clever workarounds. Gaining this knowledge requires sweat and time and effort.
People (including myself) worry how they will look if things don’t work. Managing this worry without ignoring it requires COURAGE. Focus must be maintained.
I have seen this in the real world, on my projects. We proposed inventing a new material to significantly and permanently fix an important customer problem. People thought it was too ambitious, but not crazy or stupid, only difficult. Our small team persevered and patented and commercialized the new material, and our customers were delighted. However, I had many doubts along the way, but we all kept going because we had not run out of good ideas and were going to do “whatever it took” to make it work.
My main learning from this line of thinking is that courage is as important as all the technical mumbo jumbo. Courage enables us to start on bold projects, who wants to strive for small improvements? Courage keeps us going during the inevitable setbacks, because we want to see if the new thing can be done after all.
CHALLENGE TO READERS
Please think about the most intrepid material development/process engineering efforts that have been made in your organization over the past 5 to 10 years…
Where was your own “courage-meter” on the most daring projects? Were you openly supportive of the effort during the unavoidable rough times?
How does your organization reward the people who take the greatest risks? Supportive and encouraging mindsets are the hallmarks of seasoned players who do not get ruffled easily.
How does your organization reward the people who take the greatest risks? Supportive and encouraging mindsets are the hallmarks of seasoned players who do not get ruffled easily.
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All the Best,
Marty
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