Conventional wisdom is no longer wisdom when it becomes too conventional.
Working across dozens of different fields and disciplines over nearly two decades, I have a pretty obvious observation: When everyone starts doing the same thing, it no longer works as well as it once did.
Conventional wisdom gets you conventional results.
This seems obvious. And it’s exactly what has happened in law firm marketing.
But if it’s so obvious, why does everyone continue doing the same thing as everyone else?
Why don’t businesses look outside their own industry for innovations and potential applications to their field?
The biggest breakthroughs and most effective campaigns generally come from outside an industry not from within because of the blinders that get put on from being siloed.
Conventional wisdom says it’s a good thing to only specialize in {insert field here} or {insert discipline here}. When you focus on one thing, you can become an expert in that thing. And subject matter expertise is important.
But — you’re going to hit a ceiling if you don’t explore outside your one thing.
If you look at nature, highly specialized organisms and species excel at doing one thing…
But — there’s that word again — what happens when that one thing doesn’t work anymore?
Let’s look at Giant Pandas. About 99% of their diet is bamboo. Most bears are generalists, they’re omnivores with diverse diets. But pandas have such a specialization for bamboo that they have a pseudo-thumb to grip and handle the bamboo more effectively and a gut microbiome that helps them digest it.
What seems like a brilliant survival mechanism to live in areas rich in bamboo growth actually is the same reason pandas are on the list of vulnerable species:
• Bamboo has really low nutritional value, so they have to consume a lot of it every day.
• Pandas are geographically limited to the regions where bamboo grows.
• Bamboo also periodically goes through a flowering cycle, during which it dies off en masse.
During these times, because pandas have a limited habitat range and limited diet, they can struggle to find enough food and some even starve to death.
See? The thing that made them successful is the same thing that made them highly vulnerable to changes in their environment.
Specialization can become the biggest hindrance to thriving, and sometimes even lead to demise.
A business that focuses too narrowly on a specific product, market, or strategy can find itself in a similar predicament. It may excel in the short term and within a specific context, but it can also become highly vulnerable to changes in the market or competitive landscape. Just like pandas, businesses can struggle to adapt when their environment changes, sometimes even leading to their demise as well.
It’s necessary to study, explore, and (if possible) work across multiple industries and disciplines in order to have the advantage that lateral thinking creates to see out-of-the-box solutions that get something other than conventional results.