Alexander Graham Bell couldn't do it. Neither could
Thomas Edison, whose persistence in inventing the light
bulb was the stuff of legend. Samuel Langley, the
respected head of the prestigious Smithsonian
Institution, had two embarrassing plunges into the
Potomac River to show for his effort. In fact, the vast
majority of scientists and engineers in 1900 were in
agreement on one thing: Human flight was impossible.
After Langley's second failed
attempt on December 8th, 1903, the New York Times stated in an editorial, "A man-carrying airplane will eventually
be built, but only if mathematicians
and engineers work steadily for
the next ten million years." It wouldn't
take 10 million years. In fact, it wouldn't
even take 10 days. On December
17, 1903, Orville Wright, with brother
Will running alongside, redefined the
concept of possibility.
When the Wright brothers solved
the problem of manned flight, they
achieved a technological breakthrough
that stunned the world. It was an
incredible achievement with no modern
parallel. The only thing that might
come close would be if Neil Armstrong
had landed on the moon in a craft he
had built himself and paid for with a
part-time job! The immensity of the
event cannot be overstated, but its genesis
is something of a mystery. How
did two bicycle builders from Dayton,
Ohio, manage to do what the best engineers
and brightest scientists in the
world could not?
Last December I joined thirty thousand
aviation enthusiasts who gathered
at the Wright Brothers National
Memorial near Kitty Hawk to celebrate
the centennial of flight. As I stood in a
pouring rain waiting for the scheduled
re-enactment of Orville's historic leap
into history, I recalled my first visit to
the park a decade earlier. What was
supposed to have been a quick stop
and tour of the gift shop turned into a
two-day examination of "everything
Wright." I was mesmerized by the men
and the story, and wanted to learn
more. I began an extensive reading
program to discover all I could about
the "bicycle boys from Dayton."
It wasn't long after my interest in
the Wright brothers was piqued that I
began to incorporate their story into
my seminars and speeches. Since solving
problems is a key part of management
and leadership, I found I could
draw many ideas and tips from the
work of the brothers. Two years ago I discovered that these tips had coalesced
into seven problem-solving
principles that wove themselves
throughout the Wright brothers' work.
These principles became the basis for
my latest book, The Wright Way: 7
Problem-Solving Principles from the
Wright Brothers That Can Make Your
Business Soar.
Public opinion of how the Wright
brothers were able to solve the problem
of flight range from good fortune
and genius, to birthplace and heredity.
While these were certainly factors, the
real key to their success lay in the systematic
and practical use of a problemsolving
model. Here are the seven
principles that comprise … The Wright
Way and how you, like the Wright
Brothers can apply them to solve the
seemingly unsolvable problems in
your life.
I. Forging: The Principle of
Constructive Conflict
John Milton, the English poet, wrote, "Where there is much desire to learn,
there of necessity will be much arguing."
By this standard, the Wright
brothers desire to learn must have been
enormous! Charlie Taylor, a machinist
for the brothers, once commented that
the two men would often engage in
heated debate. "The air would be frightened
with argument," he noted. To outsiders,
Will and Orv's thunderous
encounters may have been alarming. To
the brothers, it was the sound of discovery.
"I love to scrap with Orv," Wilbur
once noted. "He's a good scrapper."
Forging is a problem-solving principle
that uses constructive conflict to
uncover and validate new ideas and
strategies. Like a blacksmith's forge,
ideas are subjected to the "heat" of
debate and the "blows" of contention
until a practical solution begins to take
shape. Many companies, reluctant to
encourage heated debate among
employees, have made political correctness
and the pursuit of pleasantness
more important than the creation
of new ideas. Important sounding
boards and catalysts are lost in the
process. Companies able to teach
employees the skill of forging will
develop a keen-edged staff capable of
surfacing and defending new and
unique ways to solve problems.
Doing it The Wright Way: Make compromise
the last resort in the forging
process. The goal is new ideas and
approaches, not consensus.
II. Tackle the Tyrant: The Principle of Worst Things First
Hiram Maxim, who spent $200,000
of his own money trying to solve the
problem of manned flight, thought the
answer lay in developing more power. "Without doubt," he stated, "the motor
is the chief thing to be considered." He
was not alone. The majority of those
tackling the problem of flight in 1900
focused efforts on power and propulsion,
believing that anything could be
made to fly with a big enough motor. It
was assumed that once in the air, the
craft could be steered much as one
drove a car or piloted a boat.
In thinking through the problem,
the Wright brothers broke the challenge
down into subsets. In looking at
the parts, they asked each other which
component was the "tyrant," the one
part they were least likely to solve.
Their thinking was that if they tackled
the worst first and failed, their expenses
would be limited to that part of the
problem alone. Since their inventive
effort was to be paid for by profits generated
from their bicycle business, the men wanted to make sure they did not
waste time or money.
Doing it The Wright Way: When
working on a problem, ask yourself
repeatedly, "Am I working on the
hardest part right now?" If not, do so!
III. Fiddling: The Principle of
Inveterate Tinkering
One evening, while Wilbur was tending
the bicycle shop, a customer came in
to purchase an inner tube. As Wilbur
chatted with the customer, he began fiddling
with the box the tube was packaged
in. As he held each end and twisted
it, he noticed that he could make it
change shape without compromising the
strength of the box. After the customer
left, Wilbur closed the shop and raced
home to share with an idea with Orville
that his fiddling had produced. That
idea was the critical factor in their being
able to patent their flying machine.
Fiddling is a problem-solving principle
that says tinkering with an idea
in an effort to understand it, repair it,
or make it better can create new
approaches. Tinkering, the art of looking
for connections and contrasts, can
either be conceptual (mental) or tactile
(physical). The ability of the Wright
brothers to tinker with things, fiddle
with them until the beginning of an
idea or solution began to emerge,
would be one of the key elements of
their success.
Doing it The Wright Way: When solving
problems, encourage your staff to
look for connections, comparisons,
and contrasts whenever and wherever
they can find them.
IV. Mind-Warping: The Principle
of Rigid Flexibility
The new idea Wilbur conceived
while fiddling with the inner-tube box
(see above) led to a means of controlling
their flyer they called "wingwarping."
It provided the brothers a
unique combination of strength and
flexibility thought to be unachievable. In many respects, that combination
(rigid-flexibility) describes the Wright
brothers' creativity in approaching the
problem of flight. Their ability to
approach a problem logically, while
seriously considering illogical options,
enabled them to achieve breakthroughs
that had eluded others.
The creative principle of Mind-
Warping involves slipping seamlessly
in and out of structure. Most of the companies
I've worked with have, in some
form or fashion, tried to make thinking
"outside the box" their corporate
mantra. They encourage employees to
"break free" of the cords that bind them
and let their minds roam in whatever
direction they take them. Companies
need to remember that while "outside
the box" thinking is important, there is
a reason for the box. New ideas need
landing gear as well as wings.
Doing it The Wright Way: Challenge
your staff to engage their perplexities,
to activate their curiosity, and to get
comfortable with ambiguity. But to
keep the "box" in sight.
V. Relentless Preparation: The
Principle of Forever Learning
There's an old quote that says if you
fail to prepare for your opportunity,
your opportunity will make you look
like a fool. Prior to beginning work on
the problem of flight, Wilbur wrote a letter
to the Smithsonian and requested a
list of literature available on the subject
of flight. When the information arrived,
the brothers immediately purchased all
the books on the list and read them
repeatedly. When their opportunity
came, the Wright brothers had a year's
worth of preparation under their belts.
I once interviewed a man for a management
position. During the course of
our conversation, I asked him if he had
read any good books lately on management
or leadership. "No," he responded,
"not really." I asked him if he had
attended any recent seminars or workshops
on the topics. "I really don't have
time for that," he answered." I asked
him if he had a mentor or coach to get
feedback and ideas from. "No," he responded, "I have 10 years of experience
to guide me." It occurred to me that
that man did not have 10 years of experience
as boasted, but one year 10 times
over.
Doing it The Wright Way: Make sure
you hire the learning, not the learned.
A commitment to continually grow
should be at the top of every interviewer's
list.
VI. Measure Twice: The Principle of Methodical Meticulousness
By all accounts, the first flying
machine is one of the most well-documented
inventions in history. Much of
the research I conducted for The
Wright Way came from reading the
brothers' extensive collection of notes,
journals, and correspondence. Letters
exchanged with Octave Chanute (an
engineer and aviation enthusiast in
Chicago) between 1900 and 1910 provide
an extraordinary summation of
their work. Not surprisingly, this
methodical and meticulous attention
to detail was a key to their success.
When the Wright brothers first
attacked the problem of flight, they did
something few others had done: They
thoroughly thought it through. Their
mother, an innovative woman known
for her mechanical aptitude and creativity,
encouraged her sons to make
their mistakes on paper if possible. The brothers had an additional incentive for
doing so: They were betting their lives
on the outcome. Measure twice is a
problem-solving principle that says the
most efficient way to solve a problem is
by being meticulous in your approach.
Doing it The Wright Way: Solve your
problem on paper first, then follow
your plan.
VII. Force Multiplication: The
Principle of Equitable Teamwork
While demonstrating his flyer in
France, Wilbur decided to compete for
the Coupe de Michelin Trophy presented
to the individual achieving the
longest flight of 1908. Wilbur not only
won the trophy, but the 20,000 francs
that went with it. At the banquet
where the prizes were awarded,
Wilbur surprised everyone by separating
the money into two equal stacks.
When finished, he put one in his pocket
and handed the other to Orville.
On the surface it seemed like Wilbur
was just divvying up the take based on
their partnership. What makes the
story interesting, however, is that the
brothers shared a common business
and personal checking account. The
money, separated in Paris, would end
up in the "same pot" back in the states.
Wilbur had a reason for publicly
dividing the money. He wanted to
send a clear message to all gathered that he could not have won without
Orville. What they accomplished, neither
could have done on his own.
Doing it The Wright Way: To increase
the "force" of your staff, make sure the
five equities of team (trust, power, effort,
profits, honor) are fairly distributed.
One hundred years ago, the Wright
brothers would not have had a "Seven
Principles" poster tacked on the wall
of their workshop. To them, it was
simply a case of working together carefully,
tirelessly, and indomitably. They
had no mission statement, just a mission
— achieve the impossible and
conquer the sky. In the process, they
left behind a problem-solving blueprint
for those who believe there's an
answer to every problem, and that
nothing is truly impossible.
Mark Eppler is an award-winning speaker, a former marketing executive, and a passionate student of "everything Wright." He has taught business and management at Indiana University and is the author of The Wright Way and Management Mess-Ups.
To book Eppler at your next event, call 1.800.550.3506. To contact Mark, visit www.markeppler.com, email mark@markeppler.com, or call 513.576.9746
Doing It the
Wright Way
- Make compromise the last resort in the forging
process. The goal is new ideas and approaches, not
consensus.
- When working on a problem, ask yourself repeatedly, "Am I working on the hardest part right now?" If
not, do so!
- When solving problems, encourage your staff to
look for connections, comparisons, and contrasts
whenever and wherever they can find them.
- Challenge your staff to engage their perplexities,
to activate their curiosity, and to get comfortable
with ambiguity. But to keep the "box" in sight.
- Make sure you hire the learning, not the learned. A
commitment to continually grow should be at the top
of every interviewer's list.
- Solve your problem on paper first, then follow your plan.
- To increase the "force" of your staff, make sure the
five equities of team (trust, power, effort, profits,
honor) are fairly distributed.
