There is a French construction company that uses an ‘astonishment report’. They ask all new employees to complete the report at the end of their induction period. The employee must list anything they find astonishing about the company – good or bad. It has to be done early – if they waited 12 months to complete the report it would likely be too late. We only notice the astonishing when we first see it. After a while it becomes the norm.
The immigrant sees things that the native ignores. And so it is with new employees, new clients and new suppliers. Things that surprise them seem normal to us. Doesn’t everyone do it this way?
The astonishment report can identify things that are surprisingly good, surprisingly bad or just odd about your company. It should prove particularly useful for those businesses that are successful and assume that they are doing most things right. It would be disappointing if there were nothing remarkable about your business but you need to know that too. In that case then you might want to deliberately create something astonishing.
Seth Godin argues in his book, Purple Cow, that it is more important to be different then to be better. You need to be different and memorable and what better way is there than to be astonishing?
If you and your senior team have been with your organization for some time then it is likely that you have blind spots. Try instituting an astonishment report to shine some light on these areas. You might be astonished at the results.
Taken from The Innovative Leader by Paul Sloane published by Kogan Page
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This post was previously published on Destination Innovation and is republished here with permission from the author.
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