Beginners Mind, Marketers Mind

UNSOLICITED ADVICE AND A HOT IRON

I recently returned from a vacation. I was fortunate enough to
leave the heat and humidity of Memphis and go back to my home
state of Colorado and spend time with my extended family. While
I was in the laundry room ironing a shirt, my Mom walked through
and said "are you going to iron that shirt backwards?"

Of course, I immediately thought "what is this, I have to get
ironing advice from my Mom? I'm a grown man, I think I can
handle something as simple as pressing wrinkles out of a shirt.
I have, after all, ironed a few shirts since I left home for
college nearly 20 years ago!"

I started getting irritated and grumbling to myself that there
is no such thing as ironing backwards. "Hot iron, ironing
board, wrinkled shirt, what difference does it make from which
direction you approach this simple job?"

And then I paused, and realized, my Mom has been ironing
shirts her whole life. In fact, she was a home economics
teacher. She *taught* people how to iron for a good portion of
her teaching career. This is a woman who knows how to iron.
Who am I to argue with an expert?

So I promptly stopped and realized that if I turned the shirt
around and got on the other side of the ironing board, I could
much more easily complete the job because the cord would not be
constantly getting in my way. All was well in the laundry room
as I was reminded, once again, that it pays to be open to new
information.

This experience helps to illustrate a key concept that has a lot
of value for marketers.

Always send your shirts out for cleaning. It's worth a couple
of bucks not to have to stand in front of an ironing board. ;-)

Nah, just kidding. True as that my be, I actually do have a
relevant concept to discuss with you.

FIRST AN EXPERT...ZEN A BEGINNER

Zen Buddhism is credited with bringing us a concept called
"beginners mind." Zen masters refer to beginners mind as a
mental state or a way of approaching the world around you that
allows you operate in an open, learning mode all the time just
like you are when you first start a new endeavor as a rank
beginner.

Part of the reason that it works is that a beginner knows
nothing and they *know* they know nothing. So they do not
approach a subject with a predefined set of biases. Everything
a beginner learns is knowledge that adds to their knowledge
base.

As you become more of an expert, you filter the input based on
your own personal knowledge. This is natural and helpful. If
we didn't filter some input based on our existing knowledge, we
would constantly be overwhelmed with data. The problem is, if
you take it too far, and become so much of an expert that new
knowledge cannot reach your consciousness, then you cease to
learn.

You have absolutely flattened the learning curve, or maybe even
started to see it decline because your mind is so full of facts
and knowledge that there is no room for anything else.

Alright, so what does all this have to do with marketing? The
best way to approach marketing is to stay open to new concepts
and new ways of doing things.

-> EXPERT MIND, STAGNANT MIND

I firmly believe that lack of a beginners mind attitude is what
causes leading companies (small and large) to lose their
marketing edge. From a standpoint of beginners mind, the worst
possible place to be is #1 in your market. If you are in this
position, you have to fight hard to maintain your edge and keep
the rest of the pack at bay.

Take a step back and think about ways to put your existing
biases and knowledge aside and find ways to approach a subject
as a beginner would.

If you are a market leader, look for ways to cultivate a non-
expert attitude within your marketing team. If you are low on
the market totem pole, look for ways to capitalize on the fact
that the market leaders are likely to be the last to see new
solutions to old problems, you have the advantage of beginners
mind.

Good luck in cultivating beginners mind, and until next time...
happy marketing.