I recently read a blog post by Dave Trott and was blown away by the story of Bertha Benz and the role she played in the wide-spread adoption of motor vehicles. You can read his post here.
The story, in short, is as follows:
Karl Benz built his internal combustion engine based vehicle (3 wheeled) and was continuing to iterate to try and make it perfect, without being able to sell them. Bertha at one point in time lost her patience with this continuous tinkering and decided to take things in her own hand.
One fine day, early in the morning, she decided enough was enough and took the car and her two sons with her to her mother’s place after leaving a letter behind, which was about a 100 km from their home. There were many challenges at this point in time for the adoption of cars, most important one being the fear of the vehicle itself. People didn’t know what to make of this invention.
During this round trip (200 Km), Bertha had to solve many issues like how to extend the range of the vehicle (by refuelling), create break pads, practically invent insulation and many more.
The story of Bertha Benz
The rest as they say is history. You can read a more complete version of the story here.
Here are a few things that I learnt from this story, that is relevant for us as leaders:
Experiment:
Any product or idea can only be truly refined, when it comes in touch with real users in real life conditions. So, the faster we are able to battle test an idea, the faster can we either iterate and make the idea better or fail it and move to the next idea. By taking the car on the trip, she made the car infinitely better (including the idea of having a gear to drive on slopes easier) than Karl could have done in his lab.
Address the Fear:
Any new innovation or idea brings with it apprehension and fear of the unknown. So, people will usually resist it, until they see social proof of how the idea can make their lives better. So, instead of extolling the benefits of a product, it is usually a better idea to get people to see the idea in action. When people saw Bertha take her kids to visit her mom, she showed the utility of the car (as a mode of transport) and at the same time allayed the fear of the unknown.
Risk Taking
As a leader, it is at times, important to take a calculated risk when we think it is right. This is a subjective assessment that we need to learn to make. Taking her two sons on an unchartered journey was a calculated risk that Bertha took. This risk paid off by letting others know that it was a safe mode of transportation.
In conclusion:
As leaders, it is our responsibility to help our teams keep moving forward and maintain the momentum. It is our responsibility to know when to slow down and when to take a risk and move forward.
Just like Bertha, sometimes it is ok for us to lose our patience and take a calculated risk.
Just like Bertha, sometimes it is important to show what our team is capable of rather than just talk about it.
Just like Bertha, it is our responsibility to find a way to spread our ideas and get them adopted.
These are my lessons from this story. What about you? What lessons do you take away from this story?
