6 Steps for Creating a Game Changer

At one time or another, all great leaders experience something so big and so impactful it literally changes the landscape – it’s what I call a “Game Changer.”

A game changer is that ah-ha moment where you see something others don’t. It’s the transformational magic that takes organizations from ordinary to exceptional. In today’s column, I’ll provide you with a blueprint for manufacturing ah-ha moments. I hope this piece is a game changer for you…

Relentless Pursuit

Ever wonder how people come up with the proverbial big idea? They work at it. Put simply, the best leaders proactively focus on pursuing game changers. They’re never satisfied with the ordinary or mundane. Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos and other CEOs recognized for their big ideas didn’t just get lucky – they were/are committed to the constant pursuit of game changers. They aren’t just dreamers – they are doers. Successful leaders are nothing if not persistent, committed individuals who understand potential is of little value if said potential fails to be realized.

Be Original

One of the things wrong with today’s marketplace is there’s far too much rehashing of old ideas spun as new. Great leaders aren’t copycats – they abhor me too business methodologies. Leaders who pursue game changers have no patience for the status quo – they focus their efforts on shattering the status quo. Game changers refuse to allow their organizations to adopt conventional orthodoxy and bureaucracy – they challenge norms, break conventions, and they encourage diversity of thought. The message here is a simple one – don’t copy create. Don’t just play the game – change the game. The goal is to create, improve on, and innovate around best practices in order to find next practices.

Develop A Clear Purpose

Leaders who create or inspire game changers are nothing if not aware. Not only are they self-aware, they’re aware of the emotions and needs of others, and they are also clearly aware of what will be embraced in the market. They possess a refined blend of intrinsic curiosity and extrinsic focus. Perhaps most of all, game changing leaders are in touch with a greater purpose – they understand the value of serving something beyond themselves. As many of you know, I’m participating in the Conscious Capitalism CEO Summit in Austin, Texas this week where CEOs understand profit and purpose are not mutually exclusive terms. CEOs from companies like Whole Foods, Zappos, Gibson Guitars, The Container Store, Louisville Slugger, Humana, Tata, and other leading brands, are collaborating with CEOs of emerging brands, non-profits and NGOs to find the next wave of purpose-driven game changers. If you want to create a real game changer have a purpose that serves, improves, helps, and inspires.

Take the qualities I’ve mentioned above and apply them to the following framework and you’ll find ah-ha moments a bit easier to come by.

The following 6 steps represent my personal process for finding and implementing game changers – I call it SMARTS:

(Simple-Meaningful-Actionable-Relational-Transformational-Scalable):

• Simple – While not all game changers are simple, the best ones usually are.  It was Albert Einstein who said, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” In most cases simple can be translated as realistic, cost-effective, quick to adopt, and fast to implement. Don’t get entangled in complexities – become heavily invested in simplicity.
• Meaningful – game changers have great purpose, meet a need, solve a problem, serve an existing market, or create a new one – they are meaningful. Most leaders get sucked down into the weeds and spend too much of their valuable time majoring in the minors. If it’s not really meaningful, if it doesn’t serve a greater purpose, if it’s not a game changer, why do it? Ideas, products, services and/or solutions that focus on value creation fare better than those that don’t.
• Actionable – It’s not a game changer if whatever “it” is never gets off the drawing board. If you cannot turn an idea into innovation, if you can’t put thought into practice, then it’s not a game changer. By definition game changers happen, they exist, they have life. They don’t lurk in the shadow-lands of the ethereal and esoteric, they become reality.
• Relational –  I have found game changers enhance, extend, and leverage existing relationships, as well as serve to create new ones. When you get down to brass tacks, all business boils down to people (employees, customers, partners, investors, vendors, etc.), and people mean relationships. Real game changers understand the power of people and relationships, and they embody this in both their construction and implementation. If you forget the people, you cannot have a game changer.
• Transformational – I have yet to see a static game changer. By definition, a game changer causes change. If nothing changes, if nothing is created, if nothing is improved, if nothing is transformed, then you don’t have a game changer. A lesson that I learned long ago is that you simply cannot experience sustainable improvement without transformation.
• Scalable – if it’s not scalable it’s not a game changer. An idea that offers no hope of a future will more often than not turn into a nightmare rather than fulfill a dream.  True game changers are built with velocity and sustainability in mind. The best thing about real game changers is they build upon themselves to catalyze other accretive opportunities.

So there you have it – now that I’ve shared my thoughts on creating game changers, my SMARTS if you will, it’s your turn to share. Share an ah-ha moment, an experience, observation or thought, but please share. This piece can be a game changer to many people if those who read it are willing to share their collective wisdom. Thoughts?