Take Away
Sharp Thinking Thirty yearsago, if you wanted a hotel with amenities—business center, conference rooms, and a gym— you would have to sac- rifice
service.And if you wanted service, you would sacrifice amenities, because service was only possi- ble in small hotels. Or, that was the assump- tion. By questioning that assumption, Isadore Sharp founded the Four Seasons brand of mid-sized hotels, offering both service and amenities at a premium price that history suggests customers were happy to pay.
Meeting Opportunity By Peter Sheahan
Assume Nothing The key to innovation and change lies in constantly challenging your assumptions
I was a 19-year-old general manager of a hotel, hungry for advice. So I listened, wide-eyed, as a vet- eran of the events industry—a “founding moth- er”—gave me her pearls of wisdom on how to succeed in the events industry. Andwhat was the greatest thing she wanted to
impress upon me, after 40 years in the business? “Never assume anything,” she said. “Because if you do itwill always come back andmake an ass of you.”She then wentonto provide example after example: how she assumed that there would be enough forks, that it would not rain at her outdoor gala dinner, that flights would all land on time and
that they were not participating in civic life andpro- fessional associations because they were self-cen- tered, but that they sawno reason to participate in myclients’ boards because they did not find their offerings compelling. Or what about the association that assumed
that networking was the primary reason itsmem- bers joined—only to find out with some research that lobbying was considered four times more important than anything else that organization offered? The association had assumed, wrongly, that public policy was a secondary offering, much to the frustration of its members.
What assumptions have you made about the business of events? Are you making assumptions about your clients
everyonewouldmake it to the opening reception. I’m sure you catch yourself making assumptions
Peter Sheahan is a best-selling author and renownedspeaker. Brought to you by National Speakers Bureau in Chicago, Sheahan’s work focuses on exploiting business trends and new market opportunities. His clients include Google, Hilton Hotels, Glaxo- SmithKline, Cisco, Goldman Sachs, the National Association of Insurance andFinancial Advisors, the American Veterinary Medical Association, and the International Housewares Association. You can reach him at flipstar@peter
sheahan.com, or visit
www.petersheahan .com for more information.
about the way your events will unfold. But what about the assumptions you’vemadeabout the busi- ness of events? You can only innovate when you question the assumptions that underpin your approaches and decisions. Doyou assume, for instance, that all attendees
are looking for the cheapest deal?Doyou assume that you need to fill every hour of a conference with structured presentations and activities in order for the delegates to get value? Do you assume that youngermembers have no interest in participation on committees and boards because their world “is all about them”? That last assumption is exactlywhat a client of
mine believed until I was able to provide evi- dence that the younger generation is, in fact,onpar with Baby Boomers in terms of their volunteer activity. (The most recent survey of U.S. volun- teerism found that people age35to44are the most likely to volunteer:
www.nationalservice.gov/ pdf/volunteer_study_08.pdf.) The issue was not
or members? How can you tell the difference between assumptions and well-founded decisions? Here are some clues: “That is how this industry works,” “We’ve tried that before and it doesn’t work,” or “Yeah, but…” kind of reasoning.
A belief that there are only two options, and each requires trading off benefits that the other provides (see On_the_Web below).
A behavior or opportunity has been associ- ated with one specific group of members/ delegates.
Then ask yourself the following questions: What if I am wrong? What if the opposite were true? How would I act differently with a different assumption?
It follows that if you change assumptions, you
change behavior. And if you change behavior, you will change your results.
ON_THE_WEB: Want to continually challenge your assumptions? Make reading The Opposable Mind blog (
www.theopposablemind.com) by Roger Martin — author of The Opposable Mind: How Successful Leaders Win Through Integrative Thinking — a regular habit.
ILLUSTRATION BY PAUL WEARING pcma convene March 2010 25
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