My favorite part, and it's so true, is "Ask for forgiveness, not for permission."
Any sufficiently large institution has something to lose. Credibility, money, power, you name it. Ergo, any request for something new and risky is met with caution. Be it a new proposal or a new project, it is safer to say ‘No’. Corporate systems are optimized for saying no. Maintain the status quo. No risk of failure and a spectacular blowout.
This is exactly why you are better off going ahead and doing something without asking first. If you don’t ask, no one can tell you to not do it. Have an interesting idea for a side project? Go code it up. If you ask someone first, you’ll probably get told “Go consult with team X,Y and VP Z” and face an endless spiral. Want to write a blog post on something you care about? Go do it.
Obviously, you need to know what you’re doing. Don’t do something obviously stupid. Making a post about unannounced feature X? Bad idea. Checking in code without telling anyone? Very bad idea. Sending an angry flame mail to the wrong VP? Depends (but typically not a bad idea). Like with any risk, there are downsides.
This won’t work all the time. You will fail, sometimes spectacularly. That is OK (see next heading for why). In fact, if you don’t make a complete ass of yourself from time to time, you’re probably doing something wrong.
Corollary: If other people are going to be impacted by you failing, you need to tell them first
Sometimes, especially in client services, you need to go ahead and try, versus waiting for the no answer. Even if the answer is a yes in the end, the waiting time may kill the overall strategy as to why the project or campaign would be successful.If you look at any of the really crazy stunts, launches, promos----most of them were not planned out months in advance, they were done within a week, a night, an hour. Late nights with coffee and Red Bull banging it out so the idea would work against the time factor are what make some of the greatest case studies.
Sure, and for the most part, planning is key. But every once in a while, don't be afraid to take that jump. If 90% of your work is planned out, we should be able to budget 10% for the "quick thinking projects." Or, as I have been calling them, the "Fun and Failing" projects" that require tight turnaround and a "let's see what happens" attitude.
Thoughts?
