Killing Your “Reset”
“The reset economy” is a term credited to GE’s CEO Jeff Immeldt. The term hit the airwaves and blogosphere when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton famously presented a reset button to her Russian counterpart. Then President Obama repeated the phrase, so you can expect to hear it more in the near future.
It is a “Made to Stick” (Chip and Dan Heath) winner that has legs. Anyone not living in a cave realizes that we have reached some sort of strategic inflection point. Entire industries will never be the same. Communities will rise and fall. It may be the last gasp of world economic dominance by western cultures–or not.
It is always those with the most to lose that resist change the fiercest, though the necessity is obvious to those who toil at the bayonet level. Resistance comes in the form of snide killer phrases.
Here are a few examples:
1. Great idea, but not for us
2. We tried that
3. Boss will never for it
4. More trouble than it’s worth
5. What’s the payback
6. Make a proposal
7. Form a committee
8. It’s not in the budget
9. Play is waste, get back to work
10. Just follow the rules
11. Don’t be ridiculous
12. Great theory
13.Why hasn’t someone else thought of it?
14. Just do your job
Could that be part of the reason Toyota annually gets 40,000 improvements per plant and the Detroit 3 got a token fraction? What=E 2s your ratio?
It really costs very little to kill your reset–just a phrase or two.
artwork: John Lezinsky
