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Time to read: 4 minutes
Article at a glance:
- At Redmond, “not right now” means an idea isn’t timely or resourced yet, not that it’s a permanent no.
- We’re looking for the BEST opportunities, not just good ones.
- If one person’s name is on an idea or project, we know we haven’t collaborated or explored enough.
- Focus on being helpful where you are, staying plugged in, and sharing perspectives.
You know we value helpfulness here at Redmond. (Passion for Contribution is one of our core values, after all).
You truly want to be helpful, make a unique contribution, and do meaningful work. You want to do what you’re wired for and what you’re passionate about.
Maybe you see an opportunity you think would be great for Redmond and that you’d really like to help with. But you mention this idea to your team lead, and after they’ve discussed with other groups, you hear…
“Not right now.”
You might think that’s code for “no,” which is fair. That’s the case at most conventional corporations.
But at Redmond, “not right now” actually means “not right now.” It doesn’t mean it wasn’t a good idea or or a good opportunity. It just means now isn’t the right time.
How We Decide Which Opportunities to Take
Good, better, best.
There are tons of good opportunities out there. There are also better opportunities.
But we’re looking for the best opportunities on which to invest our time and energy.
If you’ve worked here for more than two hours, you’ll know that we’re never short on ideas. There are tons of products and services we could develop, endless ways to market and share with our community, and countless new ventures we could explore.
If we don’t take an opportunity now, it might just mean it’s not the BEST way to spend our resources at the moment. That doesn’t mean it won’t be the best down the road; it’s just not right now.
For example, there’s been talk about starting a Redmond podcast for YEARS. Every once in a while, someone will step up to spearhead that project. It takes a lot of resources and other people to get something like that off the ground, and so far, we’ve had other priorities.
This doesn’t mean we’ll never have a podcast. It just means it hasn’t been the right time yet.
This is a business, after all. We have to make decisions that make sense for the business long term so we can continue to grow and elevate the human experience.
We’re not just looking for good. We want the best imaginable.
Collaboration, Perspectives, and Patterns
In order to decide whether to pursue an opportunity, we need to explore it thoroughly and gather lots of relevant perspectives.
If an idea is one person’s idea, we know there hasn’t been enough collaboration. This doesn’t mean we reject the idea, it means we put it on the possibilities list or we keep exploring to see if and when it makes sense to act.
For example, an associate once suggested we invest in a piece of equipment to streamline our work. This was taken into account, but we didn’t purchase it right away. Then another person joined the team and asked why we didn’t have that same piece of equipment. We realized that since multiple people brought it up, we should look into it even more closely than we already had. We ended up buying the equipment.
The first associate wondered why we only upgraded after the second associate’s suggestion and not when they first brought it up, but it wasn’t about the second associate. Both of their perspectives contributed to that decision. Patterns matter. When we start noticing patterns, we might make a decision.
The bottom line? Keep sharing your perspective, because your creativity can contribute to the direction and genius of the group.
Alignment
An opportunity has to make sense with our mission to elevate the human experience.
We don’t chase quick money or create products to appeal to the masses. Instead, we create a quality experience for the customers, partners, and associates who resonate with our mission and values.
We won’t water ourselves down to appeal to a wider audience. We aren’t interested in short-term gains at the cost of long-term growth.
We’re not perfect
Sometimes we don’t act on an opportunity and realize, in hindsight, that we probably should have.
Sometimes we’re so bogged down by urgent Q1 work that we can’t think long term.
Redmond’s made up of human beings, and humans make mistakes. Collaboration and Occhiolism can smooth out some of the bumps here, but we still aren’t going to get everything right 100% of the time.
So, what do you do now?
Focus on what’s in front of you. Be helpful NOW, where you are, while staying plugged in to our current priorities, direction, and needs.
Keep sharing what you’re seeing. Keep sharing your perspective. Keep being helpful. Know that your work and perspective contribute to the whole!
