When Making a Big Decision, Think: “Eddie Would Go”
HBR.org 2013-10-30
Last month ESPN premiered a documentary as part of its “30 for 30” series. Its subject is Eddie Aikau, the legendary Hawaiian lifeguard, big wave surfer, and ocean explorer.
As someone born and raised in Hawaii, I’ve always admired Aikau. On the beach at Waimea Bay, he gained renown for rescuing more than 500 swimmers in distress. Later, his love for the Hawaiian people and culture prompted him to join the Hokule’a—a bold quest to travel by canoe from Hawaii to Tahiti (a distance of 2,600 miles) using only the stars for navigation. When the Hokule’a capsized in a storm, Aikau attempted to save the crew by paddling solo on his surfboard to the nearest island — 12 miles away — to get help. He was never seen again.
Today the phrase “Eddie Would Go” remains a piece of Hawaiian culture. In my home state you’ll find the saying on bumper stickers and t-shirts. The phrase refers to a particular kind of decision-making — and a willingness to embrace risks and do the right thing, even if it’s a little scary.
Although the comparison may seem incongruous, in my life as a management consultant, the phrase “Eddie Would Go” often comes to mind when I look at the way managers and companies make risky, high-stakes decisions.
The key ingredients for high stakes decision making are facts, faith, and fortitude.
There are numerous instances where we find clients don’t have all the facts. But this is increasingly less frequent. “Knowledge is becoming democratized,” Clayton Christensen, Dina Wang, and Derek van Bever noted in their recent HBR article “Consulting on the Cusp of Disruption.” Increasingly, having the facts is a given, which makes faith and fortitude more important.
Of course, having faith (“I believe in a future opportunity”) and fortitude (“I have the courage and perseverance to see it through”) can be hard. It is not a core competence you can build or acquire. It isn’t something you can easily be trained to have or summon at will. Nor is it necessarily rational. But I don’t think it is only something that you are only born with.
I believe faith and fortitude comes from love. You can call it passion, devotion or zeal — anything you hold dear. Any high stakes decision has an upside and a downside. Faith and fortitude can be defined when your love and passion for the upside are greater than the fear of the downside. Someone is drowning in a torrential river. If you jump in, your life is at risk. If it’s a stranger, you may not jump in. If it’s your sworn enemy, you almost certainly won’t jump. If it’s your child, you won’t hesitate.
It’s the same in business. Do you buy that company? Do you launch that new product? Do you run that risky ad? Do you take prices up? Do you promote that person? There are emotional components to each of these decisions. Often, the difference between a go and no go decision is not about the profits or probability — it’s about passion. The fear of downside is always much clearer and much more real than the potential of the upside. The Innovator’s Dilemma can be expressed as when the love of winning tomorrow is less than the fear of losing today.
As Tina Turner sang, “What’s love got to do with it?” There are at least four kinds of love in business. First, I’ve seen it as a love for a specific consumer group. For example, executives who work in the pet industry tend to love pets and people who love pets. They have a missionary zeal to serve those consumers. Second, great innovators have a love for the art of the possible. They believe discovery is in it of itself a good. Third, brand builders love their brands and react with the swift fury of a mama bear protecting her cub whenever anyone attacks their brand. Finally, for some it is simply a love of winning and keeping score by profits and your stock price.
My observation is that companies and leaders that exhibit the first two kinds of love in business succeed more often in the long-term, because they look forward and outside. The last two loves are inherently a rear-view mirror and navel gazing. And if I had to pick between a missionary vs. a mercenary motivation, I bet on the former to overcome the Innovator’s Dilemma.
Sometimes facts can only point us in the direction. It takes emotion, passion and love to actually jump. Because love makes us do crazy things.
