Lift The Restrictions

Last week I attended the launch night of Carluccio’s in Exeter. I got to talking with the PR guys who had handled the event about my freshly released New PR framework.

The conversation was interesting. They were smart people. They knew the landscape was changing. But they were caught between what they knew was coming and what their clients were currently paying for.

That’s the problem with most institutional knowledge. It’s always slightly behind. Not because people are stupid, but because organisations are slow. The individual often knows before the system does.

But here’s what I want to say: the restrictions that slow us down are often self-imposed. We assume that because our clients expect X, we can only deliver X. We assume that because our industry has always done Y, we can only do Y.

What if you lifted the restrictions?

What if you offered the client something they didn’t know to ask for? What if you said, ‘Here’s what you paid for. And here’s what we think you actually need.’

The organisations that will lead in the next decade are the ones willing to lift the restrictions – on their thinking, on their offering, on their idea of what’s possible.