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In “The Design of Business“, Roger Martin talks about businesses that find an algorithm and just stick with it. They exploit it and never really dare to explore new ideas or ways of doing things. Sort of like a one hit wonder. You just live off the royalties of that one great idea.
What’s a one hit wonder?
My colleague Mark Gammon and I were talking about Martin’s book and this phenomenon and decided it was time for a “One Hit Wonder Friday”. A one hit wonder is an artist, singer, or group who has made a hit, a really big hit, and yet has not been able to do anything else that really grabbed the public’s attention. Given that the one hit wonder Martin describes in his book is one I’ve loved for a while, we decided to kick-off our Friday series with his example. Here’s who we have in mind: someone who has a song pretty well known even though it is quite old. And yet, the artist (okay, that’s a hint, it is one person) never explored or expanded. It turns out he (okay, it’s a male), has been doing okay living off his royalties. But before we reveal further clues about our artist, first back to business.
Are you living off the royalties of your business “one hit wonder”?
Businesses can end up being one hit wonders too. They find that one “song,” that one big idea, or that one good process and believe they have to stick with it in order to be successful. This is the stuff of bureaucracies. The sad fate of business one hit wonders is that they just aren’t built to last. The idea either dies out or is bought out. One thing for sure, with business one hit wonders there is no room for chance or growth; that is too dangerous.
For your business to avoid the doom of a one hit wonder, you’ll have to challenge yourself continuously in process improvement, in product visioning, and in knowledge sharing. You will have to invite the discomfort of exploration and the unknown. Accepting and embracing the ambiguity of whether you will be a hit or not is not easy. But, as in the Agile world, with frequent feedback and delivery in small batches, you can make quick adjustments through heuristics that set you on your next big hit.
Back to our “One Hit Wonder Friday!”
Here are a few facts about this week’s one hit wonder (thank you Wikipedia):
He’s a Massachusetts boy, born in the 1940’s. He studied music at Boston University (ah, that paid off :-) Using some of the proceeds from his one hit, he landed a farm outside of Petaluma, CA. So all is not bad for our one hit wonder! The song itself is remarkably recognizable given that it came out back in 1969-1970 and sold over 2 million copies during that time. (Again, what an algorithm to stick with!) To our one hit wonder’s delight, it has been re-made a number of times, including by the great all girl punk band Fuzzbox (Hint: yes, there is a connection between the term fuzzbox and our song.) This is really good stuff :-)
The song itself had a combination of a sort of spiritual and hippie feel using heavy guitars and hand-clapping. Our artist wrote the song in 15 minutes as his own version of what he thought a gospel song could be. And finally, Rolling Stone rates the song #333 in its top 500 songs of all time.
So who is our one hit wonder this week?
Jean Tabaka is a crash skier, author and Agile Fellow at Rally Software Development. You can follow Jean on Twitter at @jeantabaka
I have a reason for liking 
Agile philanthropy started as a way of trying to meld my passion for doing good in the world with my passion for agile methods. Using the power that is evident in the agile community to do great things is one of the goals of Agile Philanthropy. Ideally we will get to the point that this movement is self-sustaining. But we are really just starting out on this journey. I hope that I can grow the movement in the direction of local chapters doing work for local not for profits. Right now everyone is very busy and I am the bottleneck. We are currently working with 
depending on which end of the letter your name appears. That letter puts a pretty hard stop to a relationship. It’s communicating detachment and finality. It can create a lot of pain whether intended or not. In contrast, a love letter is uplifting. The endorphins fly! Someone is revealing their attraction for you, and their hopes and wishes for a future with you.
My father, Jim Tabaka, was a life-time white collar worker for GM, starting fresh out of University of Illinois with his mechanical engineering degree. He worked 12 hour days, on his feet the entire time, walking the plant floor, making sure cars kept coming off the line at all costs. He retired at age 55 with a great pension and unbelievable health benefits.
My brother Tim Tabaka is a retired GM blue collar autoworker. Well, retired is the euphemism for, “Would you please leave early so that we can bring in a younger, less experienced, cheaper workforce?” During his time at GM he worked any shift he was told to work. He even moved to a different, older plant. Why? He needed the job and they wanted to replace the older workforce with a cheaper, younger workforce.
Fair enough. I have my brother Tim as an example of an autoworker who benefited (well, except for the darn “Baby Elephant” team’s issues). But I also have a father who, as a GM executive was expected to tirelessly follow and communicate the GM line. It took its own deep toll on him. And I have a nephew who continues to work as a very replaceable night shift cog in a different plant in the GM machine. GM has declared bankruptcy for any number of reasons. And now, my mother’s benefits, my brother’s pension, and my nephew’s pay are in peril.
