Set in Your Ways? Here’s how to Jumpstart your Next Big Idea.

As entrepreneurs and business leaders, we get set in our ways. This is often a natural reflex; our products are fulfilling needs, our processes are working, our services are satisfying, and we are making money. Finding success in what works is not a bad thing whatsoever; you need to make money, after all!

However, how this behavior becomes detrimental is when said business or organization protects and defends this status quo of what is “working,” even when profits stagnate, customers wane, and, in this day and age, digital disruptions begin to displace what they have to offer or how they offer it.

So, at some point when it becomes clear that what you have been doing doesn’t work anymore, what’s the best way to fix this? Many will state the obvious: lower the price, add a new feature, or revamp an older product in some way. Sure, these improvements can and often do produce results, yet in other situations, things get worse. In those circumstances, there is one principle of my Anticipatory Organization® Model that works like a charm: do the exact opposite from what you’ve done.

I first introduced the Burrus Law of Opposites in 1983, and it states that by taking a problem, a product, or a service, and flipping the core concept around in the opposite direction, invisible opportunities and…