[May 31, 2016] No one likes sudden change and no one likes radical new ideas or concepts. Yet senior leaders who possess the ability to set such conditions with a minimum of disruption are rare, highly skilled, and deeply understand the human psych. The best way of getting new ideas and concepts accepted is through socializing them through great leadership, or, by dictatorial fiat (the latter is not the story here today).
During one of my flights over the Memorial Day holiday, I picked up the Delta Sky magazine to read a story called No Problem Too Big.1 The article jumped out to me because I’ve always been interested in how solving big problems can work and the story behind the big picture. This particular article was about the CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation2; the world’s largest private foundation. Could this be about socializing new ideas or concepts?
Initially I was expecting some old ideas about how the money from the foundation is spent to fix problems like dirty water in third world countries or some short list of successes, but it was not to be. Neither of these were in the article and my first thought was one of disappointment … was this just another puff piece for the weary traveler? Was this just another article to those of us stuffed on an airplane and who have little interest other than the crossword puzzle on the back page?
I’m not so sure about why the author wrote this piece other than to entertain but it was clear to me that one task of the CEO, Dr. Sue Desmond-Hellman, was to socialize the idea “that it is possible” to fix the world’s problems and to do it fast. Most people would laugh at the thought that such gargantuan problems could have a solution, much less fixed in a short time frame. But that is what Dr. Hellman is trying to tell us.
Once people are convinced something can be done, then it’s just a matter of leading them to the solution. The hardest part is often just getting people to believe. That is done through consistent and repetitive messages that some new idea or concept can solve a problem and that how to do it is both needed and doable. That is what we have here in the Delta Sky article.
CEO Dr, Hellman is building strength in the Gates Foundation by retelling the story that no problem is too big that cannot be fixed. She is doing it convincingly but more importantly she is telling and retelling the story to anyone who will listen. People start to believe and put their energy behind the mission; it draws people to it and the strength of many reaches a point to where it becomes possible.
That is the idea behind socializing new ideas or concepts.
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