It's Time To Change Perspective

The Penny farthing was popular in the 1880-90s. Penny farthings allowed the rider to go farther, faster, and better absorb shocks.

Innovators keep improving the Penny farthing by increasing the size of the wheel. The bigger the wheel, the faster it turned, covering more distance. But there was a limitation to this innovation: the wheel size maxed out at the ability of someone’s legs to reach the pedals…not to mention the danger of tumbling over the handlebars.

Bicycle evolution operated on the belief that innovation was tied to the wheel size. Until 1885, when John Kemp Starley realized there was a different question: what if the distance and speed a bicycle can travel isn’t reliant on the wheel size? He invented the first chain bicycle, increasing speed and safety and rendering the Penny Farther obsolete.

Sometimes we get stuck seeing things from one perspective. We forget to question if there is another path or approach. It takes diverse perspectives, experiences and constructive challenge to determine if the best path is to iterate to make what we have better…or if we need to ask a different question and come up with a different direction. Regularly build in time to question and reflect which path is right...when it is time to iterate and when it is time to disrupt.

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