It was February 2020. The Covid-19 pandemic was building, the possibility of a lock-down was already in the air, and we had a decision to make: Do we continue with our new rental agreement or wait? Despite these uncertainties, we decided to go ahead.
So why didn’t we wait?…
We had been hosted by The Office for a few years, which had grown into a real home. But in the last year our business and the team had been growing steadily and we were starting to see the limits of the space. It was time for us to leave the nest. We also wanted to create a new space where our teams and our clients could collaborate to discover the benefits of Digital Governance. To do that, we decided that we needed to build our “House of Governance”.
But what about the uncertainty?!…
Well, uncertainty is at the very core of innovation, and innovation is what we do! One of the things that I like to say is “Good Governance starts twice with Go”. What this means is that you can only get really good at what you do if you get started first. Most innovation projects end in analysis paralysis; trying to find answers to every possible outcome before doing anything. This is simply not possible and leads to wasted time and money, and a false sense of predictability.
The better way is to define what you want to achieve and try out solutions as soon as possible. This is what risk managers call a “calculated risk”, and what investors would call “spreading your bets”. Of course, this approach requires a bit of courage, and you must accept the possibility that it may not work. But like all learning experiences, the best way to learn not trip over a rock is to stub your toe once. As long as you don’t bet the house on innovation projects, the risk is limited. But the benefits of the increased speed of projects are enormous.
So we decided that the benefits of moving ahead would far outweigh the benefits of saving on a few months of rent. And guess what, this project gave everyone something to look forward to, which drove a huge amount of positive energy into our teams during an especially difficult period.
I hope to see many of you soon in our office. We are open for business and can be found on 8, Boulevard de la Foire, right in the heart of Luxembourg.
All you have to do is to bring your best ideas and, for now, a mask.
