I got this idea from reading about one of my favorite coffee companies, Peet’s Coffee & Tea, and their CEO Patrick O’Dea, who applies this approach to innovation. From its inception, the company has been known to innovate, and its values have been a catalyst for innovations that have changed the coffee industry. One example is a direct store delivery and merchandising system that has resulted in delivering unprecedented product freshness to customers. By “looking through the lens of the values,” the company has also changed the lives of coffee farmers in Africa, impacting their livelihood while securing quality beans for Peet’s coffee.

If you look at your organization, your customers or the marketplace through the lens of the company values, you will see places that would benefit from innovative thinking – and your colleagues are more likely to appreciate how that innovation could make a difference for the business. Thinking from the values will make it clear how the new idea you are putting forth will serve the company. When you challenge a convention from the perspective of your company’s values, you are enabling the organization to be a part of the change rather than an obstacle to it.

What are some other benefits of challenging convention through your company’s values?

Growing From the Past
We’ve all had the experience of taking the ‘next step’: Finish one thing, and on to the next. You take the steps you take because “that’s what you do.” And you know you’ve grown because you look to the past and compare where you are now to where you were then. There’s a lot of progress and success to be had in this paradigm, but we may not always be sure where we’re headed since we’re always looking back.

Growing For the Future
You got a glimpse of the future and you liked what you saw. You’re doing everything you can to make it a reality. Forget where you were. Where are you headed? You’ll know you’ve grown when you get there. We’ve all had this experience, too.  Now we’re growing like crazy, but our eye isn’t even on the growth. It’s on the future we’re committed to. And when we get there, not only have we grown, but we’ve accomplished something amazing.

If you’re not already, try bringing the future into the equation by thinking about what your growth is for. What new opportunities will become available? What difference will you have made?

The biggest accomplishment of the whole endeavor came not during the marathon itself – although crossing that finish line after 5 hours of running truly was life-changing. The biggest accomplishment came during the 18-mile training run. At that point, in mid-December, it would be the furthest I had ever run in my life. I woke up the morning of the run to sub-freezing temperatures, high winds, and a sore knee.

My first thought upon waking was, “I’ll just stay here under these warm covers. No one will ever know if I don’t do this run.” Typically, when I have a thought like that, I’ll have to fight past it or give in to it. On this day, something clicked and I did neither. Instead, I actually laughed at my own thought and then ignored it. I sprung out of bed, despite my mind still fighting (“Nooo! I don’t wanna!”).

Throughout the run that day, I kept “myself” separate from my “mind.” I had an intention to run 18 miles that day – that’s what I’m calling “myself.” Then, there was my “mind,” a separate entity, a grumbling little voice in my head that negotiates its way out of my intentions.

At mile 13, there was a fork in the route I had chosen to run that day. Turn right to complete the last 5 miles of the run. Turn left to short cut to the parking lot and the promised warmth of my car. My mind went nuts: “Your knee is hurting, isn’t it? 13 miles is good enough. No one will ever know you didn’t do those last 5 miles anyway. You can make it up next week. It’s cold out.” Tempting though it was to veer left, I let my mind think those thoughts, and then I laughed them off. And I finished that 18 mile run.

On the proud ride home that afternoon, I started to wonder if this isn’t what life is all about. Take on a breakthrough outcome and it becomes your mind’s job to thwart you at every pass. When you get close to the goal you can be sure your mind will kick in with a litany of logical excuses and reasons it can’t happen that will be tempting to buy into. Seth Godin calls it the “Lizard Brain,” while Steven Pressfield dubs it “The Resistance.” Whatever it is, it’s powerful. But what I discovered that day was that laughing it off while staying true to my intent was a strategy for taking its power away. One of many strategies, I’m sure. I also like this one from Pressfield:

The point is – don’t buy what your mind is selling. The trick is to stay true to what you said, and take the case that whatever your mind throws at you is simply its way of trying to get you to quit.

Albert Einstein really was a genius. In addition to the complexities of the universe, he also understood the simplicities of humanity. A case in point is the quote above, where he eloquently reminds us of the importance of paying attention. Couple this with the myriad professional and personal goals we all have, and it becomes clear that the first step in accomplishing anything is simply paying attention to it.

The value of our attention is such a familiar concept that it’s baked right into the English language. We ‘pay’ attention, just like we ‘pay’ our bills. That verb is a subtle linguistic hint that we relate to our attention much like we relate to our money: as a precious commodity to be spent carefully, on the things that need it most. And when we spend our attention on one thing, we tend to ignore others. Some striking studies have been done to explore this, most famously the Gorilla Experiment conducted by Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons in 1999.

It stands to reason that the more we pay attention to our attention, the more effective we can be. For example right now, we’re probably all spending some of our attention on things we’d rather not be: some of us unwittingly pay a lot of attention to ourselves, how we look, and how we’re perceived. Some of us pay constant attention to others, endlessly comparing ourselves or wishing we had what they do. Some of us pay attention to the past, going over decisions that have long since been made. And others of us pay our attention to the future, wondering what it might bring. The less attention we pay to these things, the more we can pay to our own goals and growth.

Are you paying your attention to the places where it’s needed most? Think about what you’re working on right now. Is everything getting the attention it needs? Is anything getting too much? It’s up to you to choose how you spend your attention; all you need to do is pay attention to what you’re paying attention to.