I was recently traveling from Houston to San Diego. While boarding my Southwest flight, there was an open aisle seat in row 6, which I decided was for me. There was a woman sitting in the window seat, but as the flight wasn’t completely full, we did not receive an occupant in the center seat of our row, which everyone knows is the whole point of flying Southwest. It’s a game to see if you can look uninviting enough to get someone to pass by. As I’ve written before, I am not a chatty traveler; I have my computer or reading material and while not being rude, I do not indicate to anyone that I am open for conversation.
To my great joy, I managed to fly from Houston to Las Vegas without having any conversation with my row-mate. However, once in Las Vegas, we realized we were the only ones going on to San Diego. We had the whole plane to ourselves for a few minutes while the crew was preparing the plane for new arrivals, so, we started up a conversation. Her name was Cyndee Johnson, and she travels the U.S. (and the world!) advising Dentists and Dental Practices on how to accelerate their business. Since my personal dentist, Dr. Brad Bynum of Valdosta, runs one of the most advanced dental practices in the U.S., we were quickly engaged in a conversation about the innovations in dentistry and how she operates her practice. It was at this point we realized they were about to let passengers in, and Cyndee suggested we move up closer to the front.
Which we did, to row 2. Now that I was engaged in this conversation with Cyndee, I was interested in learning more about how she was incorporating innovation in her practice and advising other dentists to do the same. We were chatting away as new passengers boarded; I literally had by back to the aisle, and we were as animated as the crew on The View.
Then… it happened. A woman stopped, and asked to be let in–to our row. I looked up incredulously and asked, “You want to sit … here?”
“Yes,” she said in a matter-of-fact tone. I got up and she settled in, taking some of my and Cyndee’s personal seats in the process. Now there was no way we could carry on with this woman between us; in fact, I couldn’t even see Cyndee anymore. Disappointed, I withdrew back into my self-imposed communication exile, though I couldn’t help but think we had made a strategic error. Turning around, I observed that the center seat in row 6 was empty.
In any situation, it is important to determine what the most desirable outcome is. Most individuals and organizations do this. But, it is equally important to brainstorm what you would want not to happen. In this situation, we thought the desirable outcome was to get closer to the front of the plane; after all, the closer you are to the front door, the sooner you get out when you land. However, we failed to think of the negative outcome: someone sitting between us now that we wanted to chat.
Consider this, you board a plane, scan down the rows, and only see center seats. Since there is little benefit of one center seat over another, what should you do? Take the closest center seat to the front. And there we were, on row 2. If we had thought through the matter strategically, we would have stayed in row 6 and been able to continue our conversation all the way to San Diego.
When you are innovating or planning strategically, are you examining the potentially negative results of your strategies? If not, why not? Perhaps your best innovation or strategic idea has more potential negative outcomes and your third or fourth idea might be a better overall fit. Only by examining all of the positive and negative outcomes of your ideas and strategies can you truly achieve the best likely outcome for yourself or your organization. Failure to do so might leave you close to the front of the pack but locked out of meaningful results.