This morning I came across a presentation that I delivered to a group of event professionals some eight or ten years ago.
At the time, Heinz had recently introduced a new ketchup bottle. It featured a big, wide spout and was made of squeezable plastic. The new design was supposed to eliminate the frustrating ritual of pounding the bottom of the bottle to get the ketchup to flow. One little squeeze and ketchup should flow right out. No wait. No sore palms. Life would be good.
Except that it didn’t work that way at my house. For some reason, I still found myself pounding the bottom of the bottle. It was the only way to get the ketchup down to the spout and out onto my kids’ hot dogs. So much for 21st century design, I used to think. That is until one day when I realized that the designers had got it right, after all. The problem wasn’t with the bottle or the designers. The problem was with me and my family.
We had been putting the bottle back in the refrigerator the way we always put the ketchup bottle in the refrigerator, with the white spout and the cap pointing up. In one of those lightning-bolt “aha” moments, I suddenly realized my wife, my kids and I had it backwards. This bottle was designed to be stored with the white spout facing down. Even the label was designed to support the spout-on-the-bottom orientation. As soon as we began putting away the bottle in the way it was intended to be stored, the new design worked. One squeeze. Ketchup flowed. Life WAS good.
It was an great example of self-limiting behavior. We were working at cross-purposes with the bottle. We were getting in the way of the new design, clinging to old habits, not adapting to new models. I asked my audience, how many ketchup bottles do you harbor in your professional life as event professional?
I laughed when I came across that presentation this morning. Much as I hate to admit this, I’m still guilty of sometimes putting that bottle back with the spout facing up. I also know that I still have plenty of ketchup bottles right here at work. Situations where I get in the way of progress or when I practice self-limiting behavior.
How about you? How many ketchup bottles can you find in your event program?