We know that it is sometimes the process itself that prevents learning and innovation.

The key is finding you’re the path of least resistance. In our study of the most effective sales managers and sales staff, we found that the best way for someone to do something is by doing it their best way. Defining specific outcomes and helping you to approach them “talent first” is the way you will develop your own style and function at your maximum capacity. You can’t teach excellence; you can only provide the insight by which a person can find his or her own excellence. Choice is the fuel for learning. Developing a system and judging success by how well someone follows that system requires a perfect process that everyone can master.The reality is that the most successful people achieve their success either by not following the system or by being unaware of its existence.

The reason that Professor Langley’s plane did not fly may have a lot to do with the fact that he studied a German aviator (for lack of a better term) from the 1890’s who never got off the ground. The Wright brothers, on the other hand, did not have this knowledge so they were forced to innovate based on their strengths. Building highly stable light hollow metal tubing from their bicycle manufacturing experience and studying things that did fly, like birds provided the insight for success.

Knowledge is not power and processes are not the key to success. Real solutions are much simpler. They are based on doing very little of what you do badly and a lot of what you do well. It’s a lot easier to implement what you are already good at doing.