The Concept of Concrete

Legend has it that about 200 B.C., Julius Caesar Boudreaux – sales manager for General Chariots, Incorporated –arrived late for the annual sales meeting. This was not unusual since J.C. was always late. He was a great salesman but he was a flake who was never on time.

What was significant about this date is the enthusiasm with which Mr. Boudreaux entered the room. He was covered with mud and smiling ear to ear. He had an urn in each hand and was talking a mile a minute. “Sorry I’m late; my chariot got stuck in the mud. The good news is that this gave me time to think and have I got a great new idea.”

He held up the two urns and asked, “Does anyone know what this is?” Cassius Comeaux whispered to Brutus Belanger, “I hope this isn’t that what’s a Grecian urn joke.” Without further invitation, Julius took the liberty to explain.

“In one urn I have a gray powdery substance called cement. It’s actually a mixture of limestone and clay that has been heated to a very high temperature to form glass cinders called clinkers. These were then ground down to form this substance I’ve called cement.”

He continued, “In this second urn, I have water and in that water is a sun dial. This is symbolic of water over time. You see, I have discovered that if we mix this cement with water over time, it will form something I will call concrete.”

The audience yawned but J.C. continued with enthusiasm, “this mixture will form a gray paste that will harden as it dries to form a stone like texture. I believe we can spread this paste over our cart paths. When this substance dries, the paths will be hard surfaced so that our chariots will never get stuck again. I suspect there will be numerous other uses for this but I just haven’t had time to think them through.”

Today, we realize that Mr. Boudreaux had presented the concept of concrete. We know what concrete is and what it can do. In Mr. Boudreaux’s time however, this was all new – it was a radical departure from traditional thought.

In a broader sense, the term concrete means that which is known, experienced or understood. It includes activities with which we are all familiar and those things that are comfortable to us. It is a safe haven. Concrete does not require explanation or thought. It is also the focus of the majority of our time.

In business, if a new concept is introduced the tendency is to dismiss it because it’s not in concrete terms. It is easy to ignore the new. We can protect the status quo and our comfort zone by not considering anything innovative and different, any concept. It is human nature to want to return to “concrete” discussions.

The reality of tomorrow’s world is change. To survive and prosper in the future, we must innovate. (Remember the definition of insanity is to continue to do what we’ve always done and expect a different result.) To innovate we must spend our time developing new concepts and then converting the best of these into concrete practices. Our growth comes in concept.

If we only talk about what we already know – the concrete, we will not experience growth. If we do not talk to or more importantly listen to those with a differing viewpoint we will not fully develop and cannot innovate.

If we, like Boudreaux’s colleagues, dismiss new ideas as “kooky” or their developers as “flakes”, we are destined to stay stuck in the mud of the status quo. We will go nowhere. In today’s fast moving world, going nowhere is tantamount to failure. It means the end.

From this point forward, it is incumbent upon each organizational leader to spend time focusing on the new – development of concepts. (S)he must encourage every member of the organization to innovate – to offer the new. Each must listen more to all of the stakeholders in their business. Most importantly, they must pay attention to those who think differently, have different experiences or are of different cultures.

Our growth and prosperity will come from our ability to develop new concepts, evaluate and prioritize them and then convert the best of these into concrete!

By the way, what’s a Grecian urn?

© Square One Consulting (3/2000)

BACK