With the news today of WeWork filing for bankruptcy, what would you say to the WeWork management team if you could turn back time to just before the pandemic punched the office from its concrete axis?
How about asking a stupid question…
…imagine being the person to stand up in the WeWork all-company meeting back then, and raising your hand.
You stand, nervously, because you’re about to say what you fear is going to be the most stupid thing ever asked in a company meeting - but you just can’t shake the feeling that the question brings up in you - so you ask it anyway;
“What if no-one goes to an office anymore?”
You can hear a pin drop. The eyes of the room are now focused on you.
Did you really ask that stupid question?
The leadership team laugh. They thank you for your question, and give you an answer about growth, expansion and the power of the brand.
Just a few years ago, your question would have been a preposterous notion to WeWork.
It had 45 million square feet of space under management, and a valuation that, at one point, topped $47 billion.
Then a pandemic hit and the world changed.
Your question became a reality.
People really didn’t go to the office anymore. At least, for a few years.
And though most of us have pivoted back to some form of hybrid existence, the question about the office was as profound and relevant a question that could ever have been asked.
This week, think about what sort of stupid questions you can ask about your business.
The sort of dumb sounding, axis spinning, “did I really just say that?” questions that make your toes curl. The kind of stupid questions that are prefaced by the even more stupid statement, “this might sound like a stupid question, but…”.
Now, we know you’re all smart enough to know how you should phrase a ‘stupid’ question. We’re not encouraging you to look like you just walked off the set of dumb and dumber with a bucket of sand between your ears.
The point is, let that perceived stupidity have some air time in your mind. Let it feel wrong. Let it counter everything everyone else is telling you. You don’t have to agree with it, but don’t ignore it until you’ve shaken its hand. It’s trying to tell you something.
We’ve found the more stupid the thought, the more often it feels closer to its battling bedfellow; the not-so-stupid truth.
One of the best stupid questions I heard recently, was during a product launch meeting. It went like this;
“What if nobody buys this?”.
As stupid and elementary as that question sounded - trust me - nobody had dared plan for failure. It was a stroke of stupid genius.