Surveys

A brief rant –

I have a friend who works for an organization that lacks a backbone. Whenever an issue arises, his organization inevitably proposes to do a survey of the competition. They claim that they want to determine, and follow, best practices for the industry, but to me this rings hollow. My friend tells me that they want to be a world-class organization, but simply following the trend makes you part of the trend, and not a trend-setter.

In their defense, the desire to survey the competition is completely understandable. Maybe somebody out there is doing something unique you had not thought of. That would be an admirable motivation. But there is a risk in conducting the survey in that it might influence you rather than informing you. There is the risk of lost opportunity in that you fail to engage in informed thinking. There is the risk that you instead take the easy route, and are influenced to conform by the survey, and become, well, average and indistinct.

There is a joke about two French radicals observing a mob boiling down a Paris street during the French Revolution. The one radical said to the other, “Come, my friend, we must see where this mob is going so we can lead them!” Whether at the front of the mob, or the back of the mob, it is self-deluding for these radicals to think they are leading anything.

Imagine what the world would have been like if back in history a few more individuals had the backbone to think independently rather than following the “best practices” of their time. Imagine what my friend’s organization could accomplish if they were willing to think independently rather than simply following their competition.