Turning a flop into a success
January 27th, 2010Have you ever done something so different the whole world thought you were bound to fail?
At 8 years old I was entrusted to make my first cake. Free from the constraints of adult supervision I dumped the entire contents of our fridge into my masterpiece.
Cherries, cheese, walnuts, peanut butter, banana, honey – you get the picture.
My mum was furious. My twin brother, Rob, couldn’t stop laughing.
We put it in the oven anyway.
It was absolutely delicious. I’m not sure what was better, the way it tasted or the feeling of doing it my own way and succeeding.
Now, picture this scene: The Olympic Men’s High Jump Finals, Mexico City
The world holds its breath as a little–known American competitor requests the bar be set at an unbelievable height of 7ft 4 ¼ inches (the Olympic record stood at 5 ’8” feet)
The athlete approaches the bar, so nervous; he said it felt like he was “marching to the lions”.
Sprinting diagonally he does something miraculous, he directs himself over the bar head and shoulders first. Leaping backwards, he obliterates the Olympic record and takes gold in the process.
That man was Dick Fosbury and his stunning new method of jumping totally revolutionized the sport. Whilst Track and Field traditionalists were aghast the “Fosbury Flop” made headlines.
Dick jumped higher than any other human before by daring to think different.
You see, up until the Mexico Olympics the normal way for a high jumper to clear the bar was by using the “Western Roll”. A time honored technique whereby the jumper crosses the bar with their body parallel to it (like this)
Then in the early 1960’sAmerican colleges started to introduce new improved high jump landing surface.
After sixty years, Instead of the pit of loose sawdust or sand a few inches above ground level, bundles of foam rubber were used instead.
This new elevated and softer landing surface allowed Fosbury to make a bold move. Essentially take an out of date style and modernize it into something completely different.
In many ways then, the 21 year old American’s success can be attributed to his ability to recognize, adapt and use change to his own advantage
“My mind wanted me to get over the bar, and intuitively, it figured out what was the most efficient way to get over it. I could only jump so high with the old form, so I changed it.”
Following his 1968 victory, an incredible 92% of Olympic medalist in the event adopted his “Flop” technique between 1972 and 2000.
So it was that the young man from Oregon turned the art of high-jumping upside down. Implementing principles any business would be proud of.
THINK DIFFERENT, EMBRACE CHANGE and STRIVE FOR INNOVATION.