shiny new thing

(to license this cartoon, click here)

ADHD isn’t just for teenagers. It afflicts businesses and teams too. I once heard a venture capitalist offer to prescribe Ritalin to one of his portfolio companies. 

It’s easy to get distracted by the Shiny New Thing. It’s particularly easy to get distracted when the going gets tough on your core plan and energy starts to wane. Whether it’s a new technology, a new product, or a new customer, falling in love with the Shiny New Thing can take a team off course. It’s easy to get enthusiastic about the promise of something new than the hard slog of what you’re already doing. 

Ted Simon calls this Shiny New Object Syndrome (particularly common with social media):  “In this headlong rush of confusing a tactic with a strategy, organizations waste time, energy, resources chasing a “shiny new object.” By skipping these questions the organization can find itself distracted from its main goal and/or mission.” 

That’s not to say that teams should be inflexible and wear blinders to opportunities that come up mid-stream. Being adaptable to new opportunities is important. But don’t lose sight of the main goal. 

Dharmesh Shah writes a great advice post for entrepreneurs in particular: 

To really succeed and get things done, you’re going to need to stick to something and get the basic machinery “working” and plug away at it. Good ideas take time. Great ideas take even more time. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting you be stubborn about your idea, business model, product, whatever. Far from it. I’m a big fan of the agile approach to startups. But, there’s a difference between iterating on an existing thing and being distracted by a Shiny New Thing. 

So, here’s my advice to you the next time you see the Shiny New Thing bug buzzing around your head as you’re trying to get real work done. Ask yourself the following 4 questions: 

1. Am I simply intrigued by the shininess and newness, or is there really a there, there? 

2. What would I need to know and what minimal questions would I need answered to figure out whether this Shiny New Thing is worth my attention? 

3. How long will it reasonably take me to figure out what I need to know? Can I even afford that investment? How does it impact what I’m doing now? 

 4. Should I go ahead and….Hey wait! As I was writing this, I just came across another topic for this blog as a result of something on Guy Kawasaki’s blog. Must…try…to…resist…shiny…new…thing. Oh no…it’s too…shinyyyyyyyy....[click]

Comments

[Ted Simon]

Tom,
As usual, one of your pictures is worth way more than a thousand words. It probably won't surprise you to hear me say: I'm with YOU on this, brother!

(And, thank you for including me in your post. I'm very flattered!)

Re the ritalin-pushing VC -- I find that both instructive and ironic. Instructive in that it verifies what we're talking about and how often it springs up (hmm...a new target segment for the pharma giants Novartis, McNeil, etc.?) Ironic in that I've observed that VC's and/or Board members are equally, if not MORE, guilty of falling prey to this malady (particularly rampant among VC's with limited business operating experience).

If we were to take a poll among start-ups, I'll bet we'd find that one of the top anxiety producers on a monthly basis is: "what 'new thing' will one of the Board members/investors suggest at the monthly Board meeting?"

This variant of "Shiny New Thing" is particularly dangerous as VC's/Board members have an obviously huge impact on a young company. (That tends to happen when you've plunked down a couple mill' to fund a company.) And, history has also proven that it's not healthy career-wise to continuously ignore these "suggestions" from your Board/investors.

So, the very group that may have the greatest interest in ensuring a company's success (due to their investment) may actually end up distracting and derailing the company from its focus. I think that qualifies as irony of some flavor or another.

That's not to say VC's and Board members don't have great ideas -- they usually contribute mightily, especially to a young company. But, we are ALL guilty and susceptible of falling prey to this dreaded malady.

So, thanks for this hilarious and insightful reminder. I've printed out your cartoon and stuck it on my monitor to help keep me on track. It's not shiny, so I figured it wouldn't distract me too much. :-)

Cheers,
Ted

@tedlsimon

[Suzanna Stinnett]

As a writer inspired by the potential of digital publishing (include blogging), I have scrutinized this Relative Importance of New recently. It helped a lot when Facebook made some big mistakes. Now I fully recognize one of my guiding stars: Print (paper) is the only stable medium. I mean this regarding print books, but it also refers to the media jungle.
Thanks for your laser focus here.