Stepping back (or sideways) to move forward

The next step is actually somewhat counter-intuitive.…It's step back or sideways in order to grow.…When a company gets too big, it often stops embracing smaller opportunities.…Revenue just isn't big enough.…Just as Borders was slow to embrace e-commerce, people…can stall at the top of their learning curve.…The way to avoid this?…Jump to a new curve.…This doesn't necessarily mean you need to leave your current company.…Dave Blakely, for example, started his career…as an engineer at IDEO, an innovation consultancy.…

He could've worked his way up to manage technical…staff, but early on he volunteered to become a…project manager, which many of his peers dismissed as…an escape route from the rigor and detail of engineering.…But this backward move allowed Blakely to…broaden his skill set, and to begin to climb a new…ladder, and today he is the head of technology strategy at IDEO.…Sometimes sideways or backward turns into a slingshot.…As we're just disrupting yourself, I want you to think about, do I need…to go sideways, do I need to go backwards, in order to propel myself forward?…