The document discusses how relying too heavily on past experiences and logic can diminish innovation and curiosity in the foodservice equipment and supplies industry. Simply looking at what has worked or not worked before without truly understanding the reasons is conjecture. Conducting thorough post-mortems of past deals and projects to understand what went well and wrong could promote more growth. Taking a defensive pessimism approach that questions all aspects of a scenario can foster realism, positivity, and avoid negativity. No single approach of being only positive, negative, or realistic is sufficient - success requires harnessing different perspectives.

1. By Chip Evans, PhD
President
The Evans Group LLC
theevansgroupllc@gmail.com
“Parting Shot” is a monthly opinion column written on a rotating basis by guest authors.
The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of FE&S.
Learning Curiosity
104 • FOODSERVICE EQUIPMENT & SUPPLIES • JANUARY 2016
I
n life and business, false influences
regularly overtake realism and
diminish innovation and curiosity.
And nowhere is that more prevalent
than in today’s foodservice equipment and
supplies industry.
When exploring potential scenarios, it
is only natural to draw on past experiences
and even your own logic. Unfortunately,
neither are infallible approaches.
Basically, making decisions solely on
what might have been or what history
allegedly tells us is basically an exercise in
conjecture because these approaches often
lack conclusive evidence. Further, one's
outlook can often be diminished by the
emotions tied to past experiences.
Instead of turning to conjecture, would
conducting a true post-mortem examination of
a deal or project with the intent of really trying
to understand what went well and awry pave
the way to real growth in the foodservice
industry? This is likely true. Of course,
business leaders often feel they learn from
their mistakes and yet they continue to repeat
them, particularly in the foodservice industry.
When exploring potential scenarios, it is only natural
to draw on past experiences and even your own
logic. Unfortunately, neither are infallible approaches.
a positive trait. They don't see the value in
questioning the logic, suggestions,
instructions or orders of others as adding
value in any way. No matter the situation,
positivists will forever see the bright side of
things.
Yet, some of the greatest people who
develop innovative solutions do so by
questioning all the rules, authority and logic in
a given situation. "Question authority" may be
two of the greatest words ever written together,
and if we as a human race (or as businesses)
can question more, we gain. The positivists, by
their dogma, may be robbing us of our
creativity.
One approach that can potentially have a
positive impact on members of the foodservice
industry is defensive pessimism. While not
negative, this artful approach questions every
aspect of a given scenario to promote realism,
positivity and negativity.
It's not enough to simply look on the
bright side or try to identify everything that
can go wrong or simply think realistically.
Relying too heavily on any one of these
approaches can diminish creativity and
innovation. Instead, it's important to listen
to understand and not to be understood.
The true reality is that by being only
positive, negative or realistic limits us to
the true cliche that we know all there is to
know. To succeed we need to harness each
emotion.
Firmly believing anything is absolutism,
but the only absolute is zero. Ultimately-, we
know what we know, and not what we do not
know.
Our industry, led by the conglomerates,
continues to sell to the educated public on
price, often by forced pessimism.
Some people can't sec skepticism as