Comments

Yep. At least you tried! The biggest challenge for entrepreneurs (and people who want to think as entrepreneurs, even in "real" jobs) is facing and embracing risks.

Lots of people want to take the leap, cross the chasm!, think outside the box!...but then they realize that means they have to leave their comfort zone. Oh, Nooooo!!!!!!!

I've never regretted a "what the hell" decision - some of them have turned out badly at the time, but I learned from them and they put me in a path that lead to good things.

However, my version is "Sometimes you've just got to say WTF?" (from Risky Business...;-) (Sunglasses and big grin are a requirement...)

Posted by Mary Schmidt at April 24, 2008 8:49 AM

What the hell am I supposed to do with your comment? (there I used it today..:)

Posted by Mike Neiss at April 24, 2008 10:00 AM

I just watched a You Tube video by Benjamin Zander (conductor and author of The Art of Possibility). When taking a WTH or WTF and encountering mistakes and things gone wrong his suggestion would be to stand up and say "how fascinating." Presumably you could do this with successes in these cases. In any event think of the learning.

Posted by Dean Fuhrman at April 24, 2008 3:14 PM

I like the fascinating bit, a WTH moment can become one of these. Usually if it's an "OOh that's FASCINATING! RUN!!! it's quickly followed by a WTF moment, like WTF were we thinking! :)

Interestingly enough fascination is not a word used enough (IMHO) but when you do you can get a situation where greater exploration seems to happen.

Posted by Steve Gray at April 24, 2008 4:25 PM

Over 20 years ago I worked as a colleague of a Dermatologist - sadly no longer with us. Tony was a real character, renowned in the hospital as a pragmatist, a ‘doer’ who was very impatient with what he saw as ‘silly’ rules. The lab published heavy handed edicts to all docs about not requesting unnecessary tests in order to reduce costs which most people thought were fair enough. Tony got fed up with constant reminders from the lab because he saw this as undermining his clinical judgment. He started writing JFDI in large letters at the top of each lab request form he signed. Three of the letters of Tony’s acronym are ‘Just Do It‘

Posted by Trevor Gay at April 24, 2008 5:13 PM

Tom

"What the hell!" usually means we choose the less well worn path or the never before traveled path. Charlie Wilson's War is a case study in "what the hell" decision making - with this approach to his mission Charlie backed his Afghan freedom fighters with all the resources of the US Congress, CIA, Pakistan's Dictator, Egypt's influential General, etc. to make a silk purse of a sow's ear...

Richard...

Posted by Richard Lipscombe at April 24, 2008 6:13 PM

Usually, "what the hell" ends with a ?
And then, you make the right decision.

Posted by nextgenradio at April 24, 2008 6:53 PM

What the hell - lets invade Iraq!

Posted by downer at April 24, 2008 8:38 PM

In terms of a great way to inspire an gather enthusiasm and momentum behind you WTH is the best.

As a decision making mechanism it sucks!

I am very wary of people who put their success down to a WTH moment mainly because we only looking at the success stories not the failures. I would love to see a statistical analysis of WTH and see what % worked in comparison to other decision making techniques.

If we are honest the times that WTH works is because of the execution drive not because of the quality of the original decision. Basically you are putting the org in an uncomfortable position and the org rises to the challenge. Your are deliberately driving creative friction.

I would say that the success of failure of WTH is not the guts to do WTH (although that is big) it's your people's ability to execute and be responsive to the changes. If you don't have that in your org then WTH will fail. (arguably if you don't have that in your org you NEED WTH!)

Now imagine if you could get that drive and execution with high quality decisions! The question is are they mutually exclusive?

Posted by PaulH at April 25, 2008 2:28 AM

Another point while I am on a roll. I have seen way tooooo many WTH moments in the day to day running of the business that have ended up in a legal or contract nightmare scenario.

Often this is down to gung ho but inexperienced managers going ahead with stuff that wiser heads would spend 10 minutes checking with the experts first.

WTH is great but listen to your Finance, Legal and HR teams as well. If they are properly partnered with your business they will help you work through issues without loss of momentum.

Posted by PaulH at April 25, 2008 2:40 AM

Brilliant observation downer - WTH can go wrong with disastrous consequences. I fully support Tom’s plea to use WTH but on condition it is used by leaders with intelligence, integrity and who have the ability to learn history. Tragically of course WTH is freely available to leaders who lack all three. Oh how sad it is just how far we are away from Mahatma Gandhi’s inspiring words to us all - ‘You must be the change you wish to see in the world’

Posted by Trevor Gay at April 25, 2008 2:45 AM

Amen PaulH - Brilliant sir!

Posted by Trevor Gay at April 25, 2008 2:52 AM

Had PaulH not written his comment, this one I would have been content not to contribute. What the heck, as previously defined, seemed wholly foreign to my make-up. What the heck? I understand. Or, even WTF? There is the interrogative to consider that differs here that leads to problem-solving. What the heck! is often frustration which solves nothing. Thanks, PaulH.

Posted by Judith Ellis at April 25, 2008 4:09 AM

What the hell! What the heck! Same difference that leads nowhere.

Posted by Judith Ellis at April 25, 2008 4:14 AM

Interesting, yesterday I asked Universe will this plan work what I have in mind.

In few minutes I've got e-mail with subject : Journal from Hell! I opened e-mail and scroll through three papers of Word document and my eye cought only one bold sentence....This plan will succeed.

Great sense of humor. What is Heaven what is Hell:-()

Posted by Ina Matijevic at April 25, 2008 7:25 AM

My experience in 30 years of business is that any decision beats no decision at all. The problem with PaulH's position is that by the time the decision has spent 3 weeks in Finance, 3 weeks in Legal, and 6 weeks in HR, the quarter is over. If your manager is that inexperienced, whose fault is that? WTH is often the result of the lack of a real decision-making process.

Posted by Bruce Bortree at April 25, 2008 2:21 PM

Downer....are you willing to try this on for size?

"What the hell" - let's get out of this mess we got into in Iraq.. Let's forget "regime change" and all its attendant political objectives so that we can find a way out of this mess...

"What the hell".... let's do the only thing that has worked and do it on a large scale on the ground in Iraq... Let's just go with Clear, Hold, and Build.

"What the hell" .... lets forget all the pompous politicians in Congress (with their ideological agendas and meaningless point scoring) and simply go fix the problem on the ground in Iraq.

"What the hell" ... Let just do it! Clear out the 'insurgents' in each area. Hold and secure (with optimal force and 24/7 presence on the streets) the area so that locals can go about their daily business and prayers. Build a sense of community within that locality so that locals can once again govern themselves...

"What the hell".... let the locals in Iraq govern themselves in their own image not in our image....

Richard.

Posted by Richard Lipscombe at April 25, 2008 4:58 PM

Richard - your list is good but I love this one in particular - "What the hell".... let the locals in Iraq govern themselves in their own image not in our image....

Why the hell do we never ever learn from history?

Posted by Trevor Gay at April 25, 2008 5:18 PM

Trevor - thanks for that my friend...

We often need a circuit breaker in our thinking/decision-making and "what the hell" can provide us with a useful tool for today's problems... For example....

"What the hell" - lets not do this all over again in Afghanistan and Pakistan....

"What the hell".... Let's not follow the mob deeper and deeper into the Afghan/Pakistan War... This time let's make a decision to go home early.... Let's learn from those who have battled for ideological supremacy in the barren Afghan mountains, full of warring Clans and Tribes, for hundreds of years... Let's withdraw while we can and look at doing good things in the world rather than merely perpetuate wars based on our need to prove that we are "right"...

"What the hell".... Let's go do something about rising food prices and the lack of public health in poverty stricken regions of the world... Let's go immunise the millions of young babies and kids who die from preventable or curable diseases.

"What the hell".... Let's do something about over population by reducing infant mortality rates in poor countries... The evidence is clear that stopping babies and young kids dying is the best curb on population growth... Parents have more kids when the chances are they will die young...

"What the hell"... Let's use our ability to think..

Posted by Richard Lipscombe at April 25, 2008 5:42 PM

This could go on all night Richard and from it will come a great manifesto buddy :-) overnight united states viagra

"What the hell" - lets wake up and smell the coffee - to the reality that the money we spend on Ice Cream in Europe each year is enough to provide a good primary education for every child in the world.

"What the hell" - let's wake up and absorb the FACT that 20,000 people - mainly children - die every day due to poverty …. While the wives and girlfriends of London financial dealers have run out of ideas on how to spend even the bonuses of their spouse/partner. (Daily Mail 2007)

Posted by Trevor Gay at April 25, 2008 5:53 PM

Bruce you make a very valid and sadly often accurate point.

That is why I was careful to add the part about these professionals really partnering with the business. Where I work the HR person is a part of the decision making framework. i.e. attends departmental management meetings etc.

When I want to make a decision that I want some HR wisdom on I pick up the phone or go and see HR - Time spent 10 minutes to 1/2 hour max.

Now that doesn't make the decision but it does tell you HOW you can make the decision. Can I get away with WTH or do I have to act differently because there is a bunch of legal or people stuff I hadn't considered. Time spent = minimal - risk reduced = massive

I believe the key to success is not the way you make the decision it's the execution structure/org you have in place.

It's interesting that many people equate discussion or structured decision making to be slow. Quite the reverse is true if you are deliberate in knowing the appropriate mechanism/speed vs risk and you have a management structure around you who work well together it's actually much faster. When I talk about consultation or deliberation I am talking in 10 minute - 1 hour time scales not weeks/months.

As some of you may know my pet rant on this blog is not that one technique is better than another (and we spend a lot of time debating that!)it's that we, as managers, are poor at deliberatly choosing the right technique to suite the circumstances. WTH is good for some situations. Careful consultation or depth analysis for others.

as the old adage says the key to success is using the right tool for the right job.

Posted by PaulH at April 26, 2008 2:39 AM

As will all of Tom's work, WTH is a tool to be used in conjunction with all of the other tools we have. It's part of a system. It is also a powerful philosophy which advocates a bias for action. If someone says, "I've seen too many WTH's followed by right-royal screwups," then they may have missed the point. WTH is a way of thinking about rapid prototyping. Doing some smart thinking about the situation is entry-level, it is a sine qua non, it goes without saying. None of us in business are (is) advocating rank stupidity. But let's get stuff done!

Posted by Brent Burogyne at April 26, 2008 3:32 AM

What the hell - if we really want to make a difference why not copy Bill Hybels example - here is an extract from Bill's e-mail newsletter.

Greetings from Singapore where I am mentoring pastors and completing my 5th day of Willow's subsistence eating plan in order to more fully identify with the poor. I can not adequately convey how much I respect the Willow elders, board of directors and staff for setting the example for our entire congregation with regard to eating in a manner that half the world eats (mainly rice and beans) for a full 5 days. 

I have been hearing from tons of members of the congregation that this experience has sensitized them to the plight of the poor like nothing else they have ever participated in.
 
As these emails flood my trusty BlackBerry while I am on the other side of the world, I find myself praying short prayers of thanks to God for the commitment of Creekers as I am boarding airplanes, riding in cabs or checking into hotels.  My own hunger pangs have made me mindful of the millions of children around our world who do not understand why the growl in their stomach never goes away.  When I think about that long enough I have a tough time fighting back all the emotion that wells up in me.  I can only imagine my 18 month old grandchild looking up at Lynne or me and asking for a few more spoonfuls of rice, only to be told that we have run out of today's supply.  Ughhhhhhh.
 
The 10,000 children that we as a church are going to feed for one year are probably never going to know who provided the food that is going to save their lives.  I actually like that part of this deal.  Hidden acts of kindness were often cited by Jesus as being the purest form of love. Way to go Willow!  For the hundredth time thanks for rising above the level of casual Christianity and living full on for God and those He cares so much about in this broken world.

Blessings,
 
The Rice and Bean Guy
 
P.S. If you want to know more about our Celebration of Hope: Hunger Challenge, go to www.willowcreek.org and click on "Hunger".

Posted by Trevor Gay at April 27, 2008 6:12 PM

Todays Dilbert

http://www.dilbert.com/

sums it up really........

Posted by PaulH at April 28, 2008 2:19 AM

Thanks Tom. On a day when I'm being risk adverse when it comes to my blog and the design of a course for a particularly important client I read this! Yep what the hell, we small business people don't push the boundaries often enough.

Back out of my comfort zone....thankfully.

Posted by Ann Holman at April 28, 2008 6:51 AM

This quote is generally attributed to marilyn monroe

Posted by Andy Lark at April 28, 2008 2:29 PM

Tom, I was umming and ahing about asking my Boss for something and I saw this entry and I said 'what the hell' and so I did it!
Thanks

Posted by Nadia at May 1, 2008 3:12 AM