The New Manager Mindset

Chapter 8. Being Unreasonable

I want to wrap up here with an idea that’s not just about being a good manager, but about being a good human. It starts with this quote:

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

George Bernard Shaw

The version of reasonableness Shaw is talking about here isn’t the kind that refers to getting along with people or respecting your coworkers or handling the daily challenge of internal politics and bosses. He’s not suggesting you become unreasonable to all of those people. You need to keep working with them. It would be a huge mistake.

Shaw is suggesting, quite logically, that achieving something better—a better product, a better team environment, a better company—means setting a much higher bar than the bar you have now and then relentlessly working toward it.

There’s a certain amount of stubbornness in the idea, and necessarily so, but I doubt Shaw is suggesting you become difficult to work with, the kind of person who digs your heels in and clenches your face muscles and glares at people, refusing to budge. I think he’s suggesting we sort out how to make other people want to get to the new place as much as we want to get there ourselves.

This isn’t about being difficult. It’s about believing in something and striving for it, even when—especially when—no one else can imagine it.

This is how companies are born. It’s how ...