Several years ago, I went skiing with a work colleague and his better half. His wife was an accomplished skier but he was a first-timer and had never strapped boards on his feet. This guy was (and is) one of the most gifted thinkers Ive ever met. You could ask him any question under the sun and he would have a good answer for it. He was at the time and still is considered one of the brightest individuals in the technology space. Get the picture? He is a smart guy. After we arrived in our condo the evening before our first day of skiing, he pulled out a video series on learning how to ski. He said he researched the subject and these videos were the best thing money could buy and he would not need to take lessons because of them. We watched one together and they were very different than any other instructional video I had ever seen. Why? Because they provided no instruction. Instead, they showed a skier skiing in good form to the beat of some nice music. I thought it was rather similar to the think system made famous in play The Music Man. It was very rhythmic and soothing, but I failed to see how this was going to get my buddy on the mountain. I told him that the first moment when he pointed his skies down the hill and he felt his body accelerate he would forget this video completely and he needed to learn some basics. He disagreed and used a lot of big words that went over my head as to why I was wrong and he was right and how easy it was going to be for him in fact, it already was easy in his mind. So, the next day we went our separate ways: me to the glades and him to the greenies. At the end of the day we reconvened at the Condo for a drink and to hear one anothers daily deeds. That is when I found out my friends day was awful. His body ached from all his falls. He never made it off the bunny slope. He could never admit he needed lessons. Instead he decided that skiing was a dumb sport for dumb people anyway and he spent the rest of the vacation in the condo with his laptop for company.

My friend tried to think his way to being a skier. Sorry, there are some things in life you absolutely must experience in order to learn, to become proficient, and to ultimately enjoy. Few beginners enjoy their first day of skiing, but most people who stay with it will tell you what a great experience it is.

Creating a Next Generation Enterprise (NGE) or being part of one is another example of something that must be experienced. There is a tendency in company leaders to describe their vision as the way things are rather than the way things will be. It is not uncommon to hear an executive say, We are a NGE, even when there is plenty of evidence to suggest otherwise. This declare success practice doesnt give people the opportunity to experience the elements of the vision. Instead, they just feel incompetent because their leader says the company has arrived at a place they dont really understand. People who feel incompetent are likely to withdraw or mask their inadequacies in other ways. Either way, it leads to organizational dysfunction.

I think companies aspiring to be a NGE should resist the temptation to declare they are one, ever! You could argue that a characteristic of being an NGE is not worrying about labels. There is too much energy devoted to harvesting the value inherent in a NGE business model than to get caught up in names. Labels are the safe haven of the insecure. NGE companies are anything but insecure. In fact, they are so confident in their capability to compete in the marketplace, they could care less what they are called. Eventually, they are called something: winners. Competitive athletics are a good illustration. Sports writers and fans spend a lot of time trying to label a teams scheme or approach to the game. When teams get caught up in this, they tend to struggle. Winners are aware of their capabilities and how to utilize them. They are indifferent to what people call them and see labels as little more than an undesirable distraction.

Winners are also aware of their shortcomings and are always willing to experiment in ways to overcome them. This is another reason why declaring yourself a NGE is a precarious practice: it unintentionally discourages identifying those things that need work. All companies (and people for that matter) need to have the integrity and courage to examine themselves honestly. Such self-assessment is the first step to making improvements. Those who point out shortcomings in a constructive way are incredibly valuable people. They are part of the ecosystem of ideas and opportunities that stimulates new value. Business leaders should not want to give them cause to tune out and shut off.

Instead, executives should encourage open dialog and experimentation while not expecting perfection on day one. People who attempt to experience the principles of a NGE firsthand should be celebrated even if their first attempts are small or even feeble baby steps. Things like learning how to find and filter meaningful blogosphere content, joining and using a social network, or learning how to collaborate with someone youve never met are all fairly small in the grand scheme. But to the individual doing them for possibly the first time ever (like most baby boomers), it is very experiential. They get better at it the more they do it. Like learning to ski, the first attempts can be a bit painful, but going through the experience will ultimately be very gratifying.