Dead Leg Leads to Disruption

Growing up, I was a big fan of Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin. I loved their comedy and thought the chemistry between them was pretty special. I watched their shows as often as I could.  Now, I realize I probably just dated myself and some of you are thinking, “Who?”

There was one episode of their show I still remember because of a particular scene. Jerry Lewis was sitting in a room and Dean Martin came running in, yelling about something. Startled, Jerry jumped up but fell down. He quickly got to his feet again, but once he took a step, he fell again. Dean asked what was wrong, and Jerry said his leg was obviously not working! Apparently, his leg had fallen asleep. For some reason, it was one of the funniest scenes I can remember. 

Last week, I was working in my home office when our doorbell rang. I jumped up from my chair and my left leg buckled. I caught myself on the desk, tried to take another step on my left leg and then ended up looking like Jerry Lewis sprawling around on the floor. My left leg was completely asleep! I finally made it to the front door to greet the FedEx courier. He was staring intently at me as I signed for our package after I stumbled all the way to the door trying to regain my balance.

Maybe this dead leg has a couple of insights for us today. 

What leg in our business model has the circulation cut off or at least slowed down? What service is not growing or has become less relevant? How do we get more blood flow to this leg so we can continue to depend on it? 

Second, when we must react very quickly, what leg of our business is most likely to fail us? What service or customer base could be “Amazoned” or disrupted by a competitor?

With exponential change all around us, it’s not if, but which leg is falling asleep. Future Ready is: Aware, Predict & Adapt. Don’t get caught like Jerry (or me) and discover you have a dead leg.