Author Daniel Pink in his book; DRIVE, The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us tells a compelling story about the rise of Wikipedia, currently the largest online encyclopedia in the world. In less than a decade, Wikipedia has amassed over 13 million articles in 260 different languages.  Their biggest rival for market share has been Encarta, the on-line encyclopedia software produced by The Microsoft Corporation.  Encarta has been the standard for 16 years running and the giant, Microsoft, was the pioneer of the on-line encyclopedia.

On October 31, 2009 in a “David vs. Goliath” style upset, Microsoft permanently pulled the plug on the Encarta product. They simply could not compete with Wikipedia and bowed out of the fight. Now upsets happen all the time and by itself is not wildly impressive, but look at the facts behind Wikipedia;

• Wikipedia is a purely free online service; no one gets paid to develop it.
• There are approximately 10,000 people that contribute to the content every week.
• Most have to commit close to 20 hours per week to keep it going

The largest software company in the world, with tons of paid professionals working full time, was taken out by a bunch of people, amateurs, working for free in their spare time. How was this possible? Was this some business world anomaly, a rare occurrence? It turns out that the truth really is stranger than fiction, but you will probably have to read the entire book to get the full picture.

Pink goes on to talk about two elements that were essential in making such an upset occur and what fueled the intrinsic motivation of all of those amateurs to participate consistently, for free. The first was the human desire for Mastery; That is to say our instinctive need as social animals to continue to learn, grow and find our individual excellence. In a sense it is, to own a talent or skill, to find a unique personal greatness.  The Wikipedia team was all on a pursuit to mastery in their own way, the writers, historians, IT geniuses and organizational developers, all worked through Wikipedia as a vehicle to become better professionals and master their crafts.

That is not to say that the paid professionals of Microsoft are not experts in their field, I’m sure they must have a measure of expertise to have gotten to their current positions. The difference is in the level of disciplined effort and execution on the project. For the Wikipedia people, the project represents their life’s work and a desire to do and be more. For the Microsoft professionals, they are being paid to complete a corporate objective…that’s it.  The difference is the intrinsic motivation and that comes from the instinctive human desire for mastery.  But that is just the beginning of the story….

The second key element was Purpose; there was a shared vision of how things should be, what an online encyclopedia should really provide to people. For the Wikipedia team there is an entire belief system built around this vision, morays and norms, direction and each person could rally around the purpose.

There is also a third, more obvious, advantage that Wikipedia has over Microsoft; strength in numbers. Microsoft as a corporation may out number Wikipedia as a whole in size, strength and resources but not on this particular project. Microsoft had perhaps 100-200 people committed to the Encarta product, at best. Wikipedia has over 10,000 strong for their participation level. A 10 to 1 personnel advantage is pretty significant.

So what does this all have to do with the Collision Repair Industry? Well, after sitting in on the last ASA Collision Industry meeting it’s pretty clear…everything! Up on the board were half dozen topics ranging from licensing to aftermarket parts. Now I’m no expert by any means with any of those topics but it was not difficult to tell that these could all be challenging fights against some industry “Goliaths”.  There was much discussion about which fights to take on, who will lead the charge and the obstacles they would face.  And there was some doubt in people’s voices; are these fights that can be won?

I suggest that they can because as I looked around the room, I saw something quietly familiar. I saw the very elements that Daniel Pink was indentifying in the Wikipedia story. There was Mastery; every person there was committed to continuous improvement of the collision industry, to their individual company’s success and growth, to themselves as professionals. In fact, that room probably was representative of 30-40 years or more of expertise in collision repair. There was purpose; everyone agreed on how the collision repair industry should be, what was right for the customers and the community.  There was a call to action, to rally more troops and gain strength in greater numbers.  The story of Wikipedia serves as a great example of how this winning formula can help create the intrinsic motivation and relentless discipline to move a team to consistent action. That consistent action, allows Masters of their craft to move markets. 

In conclusion, I hope that as you read this it sparks some thought and serves as a reminder for what the ASA is all about.  Each one of you is part of the ASA because you are masters of your craft, with a desire to continue to grow as professionals and people. This is your life’s work.  There is purpose and collectively you all know how the collision industry should be, to best serve the community. Victory is possible; there are real examples even today where the Goliath falls.  Be relentless, keep building your numbers and rally your strengths, keep fighting the good fight.

                                                                                                                                                -Bryan Nann