Cutting edge is cool. It means being out in front, ahead of everyone else. First. Better. Doing things that no team has done before. Most people will pay more to those who can do this for us. We value teams and organizations who give us what no one else can.
But there’s a catch. To tell the world you deliver cutting edge innovation requires those on the team to demonstrate:
- Cutting edge focus
- Cutting edge courage
- Cutting edge listening
- Cutting edge empathy
- Cutting edge humanity
In other words, for humans to do anything remarkable means they must be remarkable first.
Your competition may say they’re cutting edge, but labels are masks. When you cut through the crud, few are cutting anything. Saying you are something—and being something—are two different things.
This means your team can be the one that does what is not normally done. It is only cutting edge thinking and actions that will deliver the experience the customer covets.
It’s worth asking your team: How do we think and act at the edge together?