Did you know that a using a lawnmower to trim hedges is not a good idea? However, drip coffee makers can be used to cook hot dogs?
In both cases, this is an example of what Dr. Gary Oster refers to as a type of entrepreneurial behavior that changes how a product designed for one purpose can be used for another. While the mower could, in theory, be used to trim hedges, it has danger written all over it. But the use of the coffee maker to heat up a hot dog is an ingenious way to make good use out on a common appliance. The trick is to make sure that the hot dog taste does not linger the next time you make a cup of joe.
Dr. Oster describes four ways that a product can be used:
1 – Original: no change of use. (Brew coffee in the coffee maker.)
2 – Enhanced: physical change but not utilization. (Brew coffee, but right into the cup, not the carafe.)
3 – Divergent – physical and utilization change. (Paint sunflowers on the coffee maker part and use the carafe as a pot in which to plant flowers.)
4 – Re-purposed: no physical change but utilization change. (Heat hot dogs in the carafe.)
This is all applies to leadership because often the solutions to organizational challenges come from utilizing one of the entrepreneurial behaviors described above. Often, we have all the resources we need to put us back on track, but we just have to innovative in the way we use them. Next time you or your team is facing a challenge, take a look around to see what you already have available to you and figure out how to use the resources to your advantage, maybe as they are, but perhaps in a totally new and creative way.
Lead well.