Groundhog_day

Passion rules. Passion fuels everything from blogs and career choices to causes and, of course, families.

So I don’t want to rain on anyone’s fiery passion when it comes to the “next shiny new object.” But it gets frustrating when folks trade pragmatism for seemingly blind evangelism.

Very smart people suddenly turn into very shiny new hammers. And everything starts looking like shiny new nails to them as a result. It reminds me of Chris Rock’s Robitussin routine. His father used Robitussin to cure every ailment. Or perhaps you’re a “Big Fat Greek Wedding” fan and recall the healing powers of Windex. Either way, we can get so blinded by the shiny new that we start considering any and every option where we might use it. This is letting a tactic drive a strategy – assuming there is a strategy.

Conversations about the shiny new objects start sounding similar over time — whether it’s focused on  blogs, RSS, Second Life and Twitter or Facebook, Mommy Bloggers, Foursquare and QR Codes.

Ask Why Instead of What
Passion and pragmatism can co-exist. Pragmatism is not the same as playing Devil’s Advocate.* Your pragmatism can sometimes be confused for an attempt to kill the idea altogether.

Instead of stopping or slowing down a shiny new inspired project, a dose of pragmatism can actually lend urgency and focus to the cause. Due diligence usually improves an idea and helps it succeed. Some call this a scientific method. Others call it covering your butt insurance.

The key to changing these conversations when they first occur is simple. When someone tells you that “flavr” (of the month) is going to revolutionize your industry and they want you to sprinkle it over everything, change the conversation by focusing on why. Instead of talking about what flavr is and where can we sprinkle it. Ask about why. Why will this help us reach our goals? Is it doing something we don’t already have in place? Is this meeting a customer need?

Shifting to the why and bringing the discussion back to business goals is the best due diligence of them all.

**Devil’s Advocate is usually passive aggressive sabotage, imho. But that’s another post.

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