In interview with Bob Morris (February 2013):
Morris: Before discussing The Better Mousetrap, a few
general questions. First, who
has had the greatest influence on your professional
development? How so?
Pont: You know, there’s never been one stand-out Mr. Miyagi type figure
in my career, radiating warmth and charisma and setting the standard. There
have been a couple of Buddy Ackerman types – and there’s no need to name real
names – but what I am very conscious of is that overall, I’ve actually been
very fortunate. There’s been a sizeable cast of characters, mostly very good
and only a few questionable, who I’ve learned from. And that’s been hugely
instructive in helping me decide what kind of professional I want to be, and
the kind that I don’t. But to name a few names for all the right reasons, I’d
happily cite Moray MacLennan, Hans Andersson, Jon Wilkins, Greg Grimmer, and
Hamish Davies. In each case, and each in their own way, we’re talking about
hugely impressive, inspiring, and fundamentally very decent human beings.
Morris: Years ago, was there a turning point (if not an epiphany) that set
you on the career course you continue to follow? Please explain.
Pont: I don’t think there’s ever been just one! I think careers are
twisty-turny things full of great highlights, 50-50 judgements calls, and a few
near-disasters. Along that road, with hope, you bump into a fair few moments of
revelation.
Morris: What do you know now about the business world that you wish you
knew when you started working full-time? Why?
Pont: Stop playing at being a grown-up and just be a grown-up. I think
that’s fair advice to anyone in the early days of their career. By definition,
when you start out in business, you’re naive, because your only former points
of reference are academia and being a student; in most respects, being a “kid”.
And it’s only experience that takes the edge off that immaturity. But there is
a ‘but’. Once you’ve entered the business world, you’ve entered it, so you
might as well stop “pretending”, stop play-acting, drop the pretence, and go at
it full-tilt. I think real credibility and success comes from believing in
yourself and what you’re capable of, even if you don’t have so much
“experience” to draw upon. It’s not an easy message, of course, but self-doubt
only gets in your way. So don’t have any. Or at least, work on editing it.
Morris: Of all the films that you have seen, which – in your opinion –
best dramatizes important business principles? Please explain.
Pont: That’s a terrific question. I’m a big film fan. Swimming with
Sharks and Wall Street are brilliant yesteryear windows on the working world.
Margin Call, from 2011, is another great snapshot on a particular moment in
time – but that’s not what you’re asking. Citing movies about the work-place
isn’t the same as a movie that necessarily dramatizes business principles.
I’ve
half-joked that I’d like to use the practices of Jack Bauer in 24 as a model
for assertive leadership and an approach to decision-making. Jack could be
accused of many things, but procrastination is not one of them. There’s an
argument that indecision and atrophy are amongst the very worst business
principles. Business, like life, should be about affirmative action. Just
imagine: Jack Bauer’s Guide to being CEO.
Morris: Here are several of my favorite quotations to which I ask you to
respond. First, from Oscar Wilde: “Be yourself. Everyone else is taken.”
Pont: And, of course, the real trick is knowing who that is!
Self-awareness, self-understanding – it’s a lifelong journey for pretty much
everyone. That’s my belief, at least. I do think we can learn a lot from
others, how they do things, the examples they set. These examples inform the
kind of person we want to be, the kind of husband, the kind of parent, the kind
of friend and colleague. “Be yourself” is about making and committing to a
whole load of decisions… and then accepting that life can only be a permanent
work-in-progress.
Morris: From Albert Einstein: “We cannot solve our problems with the same
thinking we used when we created them.”
Pont: Problem-making and problem-solving are certainly different
mind-sets. Not just different, they’re mental inversions of each other. It’s
how we look upon the water in the glass. You need to look on it as half full…
in order to then work out how to fill the remaining half.
Morris: Finally, from Peter Drucker: “There is surely nothing quite so
useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all.”
Pont: This is a lovely quote. I love its darkness; the wonderful
pathetic-ness of being highly adept at a pointless act. I imagine Drucker
received a parking fine or a letter from the tax man the day he penned this
dark gem. The quote could be stapled to an internal memo shared amongst a
legion of bureaucrats and pen-pushers – whose job it is to file tax returns and
serve out parking fines.
Morris: In Tom Davenport’s latest book, Judgment Calls, he and
co-author Brooke Manville offer “an antidote for the Great Man theory of
decision making and organizational performance”:organizational judgment. That is, “the collective
capacity to make good calls and wise moves when the need for them exceeds the
scope of any single leader’s direct control.” What do you think?
Pont: I applaud the sentiment, that it’s a ‘team responsibility’ to do
the heavy lifting.
At
a practical level, ‘effective leadership’ falls quickly off a cliff if it ends
with the ‘leadership team’, as opposed to being something acted upon, that then
cascades down to the rest of the organization. So I’d wholly agree with the
statement in regards to ‘organizational performance’. Where the logic is
potentially more questionable is around a team’s ability to make decisions.
I’ve never been a huge fan of decision-by-committee. Multiple agenda’s too
often get in the way. And ‘Group Think’ dynamics can also lead to decisions
(and then outcomes) that can go seriously south. Part of being a great leader
is choosing your team well, picking the kind of expertise and personality blend
that can most appropriately advise. But leaving the team to make the call –
that’s weak leadership.
Morris: Here’s a brief excerpt from Paul Shoemaker’s latest book, Brilliant Mistakes: “The key question
companies need to address is not ‘Should we make
mistakes?’ but rather ‘Which mistakes
should we make in order to test our deeply held assumptions?’” Your response?
Pont: “Brilliant mistakes” is a catchy contradiction. It brings to mind
Charles Saatchi’s book from last year, Be The Worst You Can Be”.
Of course,
no one tries to make mistakes; rather some mistakes are sadly inevitable.
Shoemaker’s fundamental message is one I wholly agree with. Companies shouldn’t
be so scared to mess up once in a while that, by consequence, they don’t push
themselves. It’s a fear of potential failure which causes organisational (read:
managerial) paralysis. And the irony is that our world now moves at binary
speed, and too many companies move at a human speed set to “risk aversion”. We
need to make “indecision and non-commitment” more unacceptable, more
unforgivable in fact, than the odd mistake born of trying. And I’m a major
believer in testing deeply held assumptions, because quite frankly, even if
they were rock-solid yesterday, or even today, there’s no guarantee or given
they’ll be effective tomorrow. Our world is just moving too damned fast, and
the “digital age” is continually usurping our definitions and understanding of
things.
Morris: The greatest leaders throughout history (with rare exception) were
great storytellers. What do you make of that?
Pont: “Story” is eternal. It’s the definitive way to package a thought
or sell-in a vision, because it plays to the biggest rule there is: “know your
audience”.
However
big or sweeping or grand the theme or thought, anchoring it in narrative and,
in particular, the minutia of “human interest” is how we, “The Audience”, can
relate and comprehend and ultimately care.
H.G. Wells
could have written War of the Worlds any number of ways, could have gone
large, as a story across a global tableau, but he didn’t. He wrote it as a
first-person experience. He kept a very big idea very small, human, and
accessible. And in “that smallness” lies the power of the bigger thought. Great
leaders, great story-tellers, they know how to rally people, by addressing
issues in a way that makes us instinctively care, because they put us, as
individuals, at the heart of the matter.
To read the full interview, click here: The Better Mousetrap Interview
And to read Bob Morris's review of The Better Mousetrap, click here: US review
