It's not rocket science

In 1964, two astronomers working for Bell Labs in New Jersey wanted to make a detailed map of the Milky Way. So, they built a powerful radio telescope to record sound waves from deep space.

But they kept getting static – like an AM station that is just out of range. They thought the disruptive noise was coming from nearby New York City, but the sound didn’t get any louder when they pointed their receiver right at Manhattan. They thought it might be the pigeon droppings that so often covered the roof of their building, but it didn’t get any better after they scrubbed it all off. For years, they worked on their research, putting up with this constant static.

A year later, the astronomers – Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson – called one of their colleagues and, in passing, told him about the problem. Their colleague was Robert Dicke, a nuclear physicist who was trying to learn more about a new thing called the Big Bang theory. He immediately realized that the static the two men were hearing wasn’t static at all – it was radiation left over from the beginning of the universe.

Penzias and Wilson went on to receive the Nobel Prize for physics in 1978.

Recently, researchers at Stanford University studied how scientists work, and have learned how the guys in lab coats find success after several miserable failures. They:

• ask questions of people outside their usual circle of colleagues;
• are open to ideas that go against traditional thinking; and
• learn from those failures

The trick is tricking your brain, which naturally wants to blame outside factors for events or ideas that don’t jive with what you already think.

You’re not rocket scientists, astronomers or physicists, but I’d bet you’re all pretty smart. Smart enough to know you need someone – or some people – who don’t work for you, aren’t related to you and can give you honest feedback on your ideas, both good and bad. This could be a formal advisory board, or a group of colleagues from outside the industry who get together for a few beers on Fridays.

In late December, I attended Agrium Advanced Technologies’ Green Industry Grad School in Sylacauga, Ala., where nearly 50 landscape contractors and lawn care operators learned about new products and better ways to run their businesses. It was a ready-made opportunity for them to learn from some of the best companies they don’t compete with in the industry.

Traveling can be disruptive to your business and expensive. You have to leave your people and spend valuable hours or days away from your operation. But, taking the time to network, spitball ideas and learn will pay great dividends for your company as 2010 unfolds. It’s not rocket science, just good business.