How to Make Your Pig Fly
By Dr. Barrett Mosbacker
December 08, 2012
When Your Idea Looks Like a Pig
Have you ever had an idea for the future of your school but others were not buying it? I hope so. Leaders who are leading and not merely managing focus on the future, asking, “What should we be doing to prepare our students for their futures, not our present?” Leaders do not maintain the status quo; they create a new normal.
Thinking carefully about what is and what might be requires attention to the present and to emerging trends. It requires an open and agile mind. It requires the ability to hold fast to first principles and worthy traditions while having the courage to innovate. Harvard Business School Dean Nitin Nohria once challenged faculty and alumni to embrace both tradition and innovation:
We must have the conviction to hold fast to the many traditions that have defined us for so many years: the case method, our residential campus, our focus on a transformational learning experience. At the same time, we must have the courage to innovate. Because today’s traditions were, in fact, innovations in their time.1
Your idea may look like an eagle to you. To others it may look like a pig. What do you do when you are having a hard time getting the “pig” aloft — when your “pig” is stuck on the runway? What do you do when others do not embrace your ideas for change?
Here are a few practical suggestions that will help you maintain your vision while bringing others along. Some of these ideas are drawn from the work of Kaihan Krippendorff.2
- Be prayerful. One of my favorite verses is Proverbs 16:9: “The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.” We should plan and work hard to see our plans realized, but God is sovereign. He may redirect us to an entirely different end, or may direct us to the same end along a different and unexpected path.
- Guard your motive. Be sure that your motive is holy. We must remember that we were created for one primary purpose: to glorify God. Everything else, no matter how worthy, is secondary. Make sure that your ideas are not about you or your school but rather how others may “see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).
- Listen. Not all of our ideas are good. Good ideas often need modification. Even if our ideas are excellent, we need to listen as a matter of respect and to understand the fears and concerns of others. One of Stephen Covey’s habits of highly effective people is to “seek first to understand and then to be understood.” This is a derivative of the biblical injunction to “be quick to hear and slow to speak.”
- Keep it simple. “Usually when an innovator sees the world is going to change, the logic behind the change is obvious… The world changes all the time. What distinguishes innovators from the rest of us is not that they see farther into the future; it’s that they take action… So don’t over think — outthink. When your logic is complicated it means you don’t understand. Think until your logic becomes simple, then act.”
- Keep believing. “Remember that an innovative vision is usually inconsistent with prevailing logic and beliefs — otherwise it is probably not that innovative… It takes time for others to catch up. Many will not understand until after the fact.” So do not give up — keep believing, keep pressing forward. As Albert Einstein observed, “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” Great innovators stay with their visions longer while others get distracted or disillusioned.
Do you have any “pigs” sitting on the runway? They can fly. It just takes prayer, humility, hard work, and patience. Do not give up — keep innovating. Our students’ futures depend on it.