Strive for Outside-In View. Always.

I've had several recent conversations with marketers about how difficult it is to be working inside an organization and to influence big changes. It's probably why CMOs, in general, have shorter tenure because they can make significant change once they arrive but it gets tougher after they've been there a few years. It's just too easy to get sucked into the politics, the beliefs, the longstanding culture that eventually permeates even the most recent hires.

Orthodoxy is defined as an authorized or generally accepted theory, doctrine or practice, or the quality of conforming to orthodox theories, doctrines, or practices. In other words, conformism.

Outside consultants, on the other hand, are able to make more changes faster because that's exactly what they're paid big bucks to do. It's like the organization is saying "we don't have fresh thinking on the inside so we need to seek outside counsel." Nothing wrong with that but how did the organization get like that? You mean to tell me that no one on the inside could bring fresh thinking to the table? Was it just eventually snuffed out by the culture or leadership? Or is it there and waiting to be drawn out by the leadership who is too busy to ask about opinions and insights that others might have to improve the business?

My experience tells me that even if you're exceptional at leading change inside an organization that inevitably you'll hit a brick wall that is tough to get through. But bring in an outside consultant to tell the senior leadership exactly what you've been saying and somehow, quite magically, the wall breaks down and people listen and agree. It happens all the time even in the best of forward-thinking organizations.

Be cautious in that scenario. If you're the one bringing in an outside consultant, you can lose credibility and involvement that the outside consultant gains.

One time I introduced my boss to an outside innovation consultant. At first, it was met with pushback but I was able to hire him for a few small projects with some left over budget money we had at the end of the year. For the most part, I used that time to train the consultant on the business as I was learning it as well.

At the turn of the new year, my boss wanted the consultant gone but I convinced bossman to attend one final presentation because the consultant's team had done a mini design sprint and prepared a few prototypes on mobile app functionality worthy of a discussion. Great ideas but bossman still wasn't sold on an ongoing relationship. Consulting gig over.

I kept the torch lit on innovation and mobile as much as possible by raising concerns over a well-funded but upstart competitor who was disrupting the market and urgency prevailed. One day I was meeting with bossman in his office and the CEO made an in-person driveby. "What we need," said the CEO, "is an outside consulting group that can lead us in a skunkworks project to help us solve for the new player in the market." Bossman spoke up with a newfound excitement and shared that we already had a consultant ready to lead that.

Yep, that was my guy. While the outside consultant tried to make a case for my continued involvement as well as for others at the VP/Director level, it didn't pan out. The nearly year-long project was led by bossman at the C level only. Not that this was bad for the organization at all but I did feel like I lost some level of credibility that I could have gained, and lost the ability plus experience to lead and facilitate an innovation project that was vital for the company through this phase of transformation. All in all, though, I was content with the result that I quickly and effectively influenced the organization to move in a forward-thinking direction by hiring the innovation consultant. And many of the teams benefited from the skunkworks project as it helped the C-level leadership team begin to think differently about our business by integrating an outside-in view which they hadn't done previously. Made my bossman look pretty good, too.

Consultants or outside research analysts have the benefit of working with a number of organizations and bringing all that experience to your table in a way that makes sense for you, your company or your situation. Many companies have similar challenges so an outside consultant can bring fresh thinking into your organization. They know how to ask the right questions and, wonderfully, aren't paid to agree with you. They are most interested in doing what is best for the organization, not one or two individuals. Often, they have the same problem that change agents inside the organization have in that once the consulting gig is over, a certain amount of resiliency takes over where the organization returns to normal operating behavior. New roads are often difficult to take until the pathway is paved.

When you're inside an organization trying to make transformational changes such as leading a digital revolution, you often run into office politics. Interestingly, while there are thankfully exceptions to this, many people don't like seeing someone else succeed and will do everything in their power to keep you at bay, to keep you from leading change that the company so desperately needs.

Yesterday, I read a Forbes article written by Mark Murphy (New York Times bestselling author and teaches the leadership course "What Great Managers Do Differently) about how there is a psychological quirk that explains why many leaders struggle to compliment their employees, and I think the same premise applies here, too. It's not intentional that people can pull you down but they rarely make a conscious effort to help you succeed, either. Whether it's giving you recognition for a well-executed project or for bringing in an outside innovation consultant, it's just human nature to not praise people as much as find fault with them.

That's just another reason why it's so difficult to maintain an outside-in view when you're inside an organization. You'll often feel like you're swimming upstream and while you may positively affect or influence the organization along the way, the chances of receiving recognition for your efforts is next to impossible. But you have to keep swimming if you truly want to make a difference long-term. Otherwise, you'll be treading water at best - and that applies not only to your organization but to your own career development, too.

So, how do you maintain an outsiders view while you're inside an organization? It's not easy. You might get a bye within your first year but after that people expect you to conform. Conform to the culture, the way of doing things, the system and to be agreeable. Never challenge. Assume positive intent. Be likable. You know the drill.

Here are a few ideas that can help you maintain an outsiders viewpoint which is to always be learning, and to keep an open mind on possibilities and growth potential:

1. Get out of the office. I recently completed Level VI product management and marketing certifications taught by Pragmatic Marketing and one of their hallmark lessons is NIHITO which stands for "nothing interesting happens in the office." Everything is iterative these days so whether you're working on persona development or charting a new course for your department or business, you must get out of the office. Go to an industry or innovation conference but not the same one you've attended the last 5 years. Attend a hands-on innovation workshop like Hyper Island or take an online course from IDEO University, or the many available on LinkedIn/Lynda. Network, network, network. Work from home or a museum. Travel with the sales team. Talk to both clients and prospective clients. I've had some of my clearest creative and solution thinking while in the quiet of nature sitting on my back deck or on a 6:30am flight.
2. Read consistently. In my humble opinion, outside-in thinkers should never be without a book. A few of my favorites are: Accelerate by Nicole Forsgren, Principles by Ray Dalio, Originals by Adam Grant, Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmul, Creative Confidence by Tom & David Kelley (IDEO founders), Humility is the New Smart by Edward Hess, Team of Teams by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, an innovation thinking classic The Innovator's DNA by Clayton Christensen and The Challenger Customer by Adamson & Dixon. Find your own favorites but read. As much as I love the physicality of books due to the ease in sharing them, I switched to the Amazon Kindle this year as book storage can quickly become a problem for an avid reader. Plus, it's easier to pack a Kindle on vacation or business travel.
3. Keep a journal, and write. Find a way that works best for you to keep track of ideas, thinking and action plans. Some people love Evernote but I use a combination of iNotes (easy to use and reference from my iPhone, iPad and Mac), Lemome journals, Best Self self-journals and their weekly action plans. Also, publishing articles on LinkedIn helps keep the more formal thinking, writing and publishing skills fresh. Practice, as writing comes easier for some people than others. Find what works for you. The idea is not to perfect your writing as much as it is to gather thoughts and capture ideas to keep your mind always working to bring in outside thinking to what easily becomes your daily routine.
4. Seek outside counsel, especially research firms. There are a number of apps like Flipboard that will help you curate content to suit your needs but the idea is to find credible sources that will help you get to where you need to be faster. I found research firms and their analysts to be invaluable because of their rigorous publishing of advice and case studies, their dedication to objectivity and their experience with working with a multitude of organizations. Chances are, they've helped many others companies solve a similar problem. Gartner, Forrester, Euromonitor, eConsultancy, Strategy+Business, HBR, Deloitte, BCG, Fast Company and Strategy&/PwC are all good research firms and publishing companies to help you maintain a steady flow of outside-in thinking.
5. Network with outside-in thinkers in your organization. Every organization has change agents, like you, who are striving to maintain their creative juices with an outside-in approach. Have coffee or lunch together, preferably outside the office and in a creative setting or co-working space. Or work on a project together, whether that be writing a business case for a fairly major change or making a list of smaller incremental changes that you can make without involving a lot of time and resources. Smaller changes often add up to big, incremental change and can lead to true competitive advantage for your company.
6. Take additional training once per year at minimum. Most people these days have both an undergraduate and a graduate degree. But that doesn't mean you are done learning. While running both an in-house creative and strategic marketing team, I required everyone on my team to finish one training course and/or attend one industry conference per year. Some took advantage more than others but I almost always approved their training requests whether it was paid for under the company's tuition reimbursement policy or not. Most of the requests didn't qualify under tuition reimbursement because they were not full degree-seeking courses. Certifications such as Agile/Scrum, PMP, Pragmatic Marketing or Mini-MBAs are terrific. Most of our local universities hold executive education workshops for innovation, business transformation, data analytics, and a number of hot topics such as artificial intelligence or design thinking. None of these adult ed courses require much time out of the office so people can knock them out fairly quickly. The best part is that they all help tremendously with improving outside-in thinking, networking and maintaining an open mind about what's possible. Make a commitment to getting at least one certification or executive education training per year, more if your company will pay or reimburse you.

What has worked for you in maintaining an outside-in approach to your business?