Think Like a Rocket Scientist: Simple Strategies You Can Use to Make Giant Leaps in Work and Life

by Ozan Varol

This is called the kill-the-company exercise. As Lisa Bodell, the mastermind behind the exercise, explains, “To create the company of tomorrow, you must break down the bad habits, silos, and inhibitors that exist today.”33 These habits are difficult to break down because we often adopt the same internal perspective. It’s like trying to “psychoanalyze yourself,” Bodell says. We’re too close to our own problems and weaknesses to evaluate them objectively. The kill-the-company exercise forces you to switch perspectives and play the role of an antagonist who doesn’t care about your rules, habits, and processes. The participants must employ first-principles thinking, use new neural pathways, and come up with original ideas that move beyond mere platitudes. It’s one thing to say “let’s think outside the box.” It’s another to actually step outside the box and examine your company or product from the viewpoint of a competitor seeking to destroy it. By viewing our weaknesses through this out-of-company experience, we realize we may be standing on a burning platform. The urgency of change becomes clear. The US military also uses a version of the kill-the-company exercise in war-gaming. It’s called red teaming, a term that’s a relic of the Cold War. In simulations, the red team plays the role of the enemy and finds ways to scuttle the blue team’s mission. Red teams expose the flaws in planning and execution so that the problems can be fixed before the mission begins. As Major Patrick...