BIG, BAD Productivity Myths (#6)

BIG, BAD Productivity Myth #6: I want someone to work with me who has opposite talents.

Opposites may attract in love, but not in the workplace. We often think that our professional foil will be the perfect balance to our lackings. In theory, that may be true. Someone with opposite talents does bring entirely different capabilities to the table. However, it is nearly impossible to have a successful, long-term working relationship with an individual who possesses an opposing instinctual method.

So if not your opposite, then who?

It is far better to seek out someone who offers complementary talents. This combination creates a healthy challenge to your comfortable ways, while avoiding outright conflict. You'll find that your effort, when combined with a complement, grows exponentially. I'd say that's a much better option than having your effort canceled out by an opposite. 

Transformation as Innovation

I confess...I am a reality TV junkie. A recent addition to my repertoire is "The Next Iron Chef" competition featured on The Food Network. In last week's show, the chefs' challenge was to take a well known ingredient (mustard, hot sauce, ranch dressing, mayonnaise, etc) and reinvent it into something unrecognizable (yet still tasty) to its original form. So: same ingredient, completely different use and perception. The host referred to it as "transforming" the ingredient.

Transformation as Innovation

Someone once told me she didn't feel innovative because she never created anything "new." Yet, as illustrated in the Iron Chef challenge, sometimes you do not have to create anything new to be innovative. Merely looking at something from a new perspective or putting existing items together in new ways is just as contributory to the world of invention and creativity.

Are you struggling to create something out of nothing in your business for the sake of "innovation?" Maybe you should adjust your goal to the transformation of people, resources, or ideas that you already possess.