There’s a time to ‘Get it right’… and there’s a time to ‘Get it out there.’ I was commenting on a blog the other day – the blogger was suggesting that sometimes  we just have to let go of our need for perfection and just take action. (The JDI theory)

This is the ‘World According to Ross’ (and TOM) again of course (I am notoriously ‘wrong’ on a more or less frequent basis! I reckon that if I’m not getting things wrong at least occasionally, I mustn’t be taking enough risks) but… It reminds me of what happened to Ericsson and Nokia around 1999-2002 when I was working on an Ericsson Management Training programme.

Ericsson was using a lot of ‘Perfect’ energy spending so much time getting the technology ‘right’, while Nokia was using a lot of Control/Entertain energy just getting it good enough (colourful and functional) to be out there in the market place.

Consequently, Nokia captured and led the market in mobile phones for quite some time. Ericsson then blended their perfect energy with an infusion of Sony’s own Control and Entertain energy. The result was a more balanced approach to development > production > marketing > sales process and an upsurge in sales followed. All before the iPhone of course, but that’s a whole other story.

AND… it’s a good reminder to the training industry – our approach to L&D needs to be balanced so that no matter which learning styles or personality types are present in our workshops, each group will receive their own semi-tailored message depending on, not the ‘language’ we speak, but the language they ‘listen in’.