The Strange Wisdom of Little People

On a bright December day in 1943, Edwin Land was touring Santa Fe, New Mexico with his wife and three-year-old daughter. They were on vacation. At one point, he stopped to snap a picture of his little girl with the snow-dusted rocky landscape in the background. Then she turned to him: “Can I see it?”

“No,” he said. “We have to get it developed.”

She thought for a minute and then, right then and there, asked a question so crazy only a child could have asked it: Why, Dad? Why can’t we see it right now?

Land thought about it. Why couldn’t you see the photograph right away? In fact, it bugged him enough that he kept thinking about that question. Why couldn’t you make a camera that lets you see the picture immediately? Haunted by the simple question, Land buckled down and set out to find a better answer to his daughter’s question. Five years later, Land unveiled the world’s first commercial instant camera, which would forever alter the way Americans took pictures. We know it as the Polaroid.

* * * * *

If I want to put together the best brief for my client, the best presentation on sales projections, or figure out how to win the business of a new prospect, spending time playing with my daughter or nephew or goddaughter is about the last thing I need to do. From a business and productivity standpoint, the thinking goes, children are an obstacle. They are, like, the anti-efficiency.

Or are they?

Think of the last time you spent any time with a three-year-old. Say what you will, but one thing is for certain: They will make you THINK. How do trees eat? Why can’t cars fly? What does mortgage mean? What happens if you barbecue sand?

Being with children forces you to stop for a moment and see the world through their eyes—with wonder, with imagination, with unrelenting curiosity. They remind you that we are all children at heart. We like stories and humor, music and pictures. We have limited attention spans. We don’t know everything. They get us to stop taking ourselves so seriously and force us to be flexible and resilient when things go wrong.

If you spend time reading Cinderella to a three-year-old, then it may hit you as you prepare the legal brief the next morning: The plaintiff’s argument is dull. It needs more emotion.

If you have to deal with a cranky, tired toddler who’s skipped nap time, maybe it hits you that the PowerPoint deck is too long, particularly if you’ll have to present at 3 pm when people are getting sleepy.

If you’ve ever seen a little boy’s eyes light up when he tells you about his latest Lego creation, maybe you’ll remember to ask the prospect all about the new medical device he patented during your golf game.

Or if your daughter asks you why you can’t view a picture as soon as you take it, maybe that motivates you to create a Polaroid.

Remember: people are at the heart of business, and perhaps nothing gets us to better understand what moves people…than the littlest people of all: children.