Why is BOLD a bad word?

When is the last time your company did something "bold" - like undertaking a brave new strategy or completely reinventing a process?

Probably not recently, unless your company is in trouble. Maybe it's human nature, but it seems to me that while things are going well, we do little to improve in a major way, settling just to "tweak" or make minor course corrections. We want to protect what we've built. It's only human nature.

But likely it wasn't that management style that got you where you are today. Your company was probably born from the inspiration of its founder who believed he/she could build a better mousetrap. Without the burden of a long track record of success, your founder probably threw caution to the wind and inspired by his or her vision, made bold, courageous, inventive choices.

But now that your creditors aren't beating at the door, is your company being led or is it being managed? I suspect that, if you look in the mirror honestly, your daily routine is mostly about safe choices, conservative initiatives, risk mitigation. Managing to protect the castle.

Certainly no company can afford to launch one bold initiative after another and expect to maintain stability, but from time to time, I believe that every company needs to try something bold.

A bold initiative can energize a workforce, heighten that sense of anticipation (can we really pull this off?), stimulate those creative juices, and breathe new life into a mature organization.

In the early sixties, President Kennedy captivated our imagination and energized a generation by declaring that within a decade, we would put a man on the moon. And we did it. Forty years ago.

When is the last time your company tried to "put a man on the moon"?