Questioning time — Part 1

What can an 18th century clock tell us about the future of money? Scott Liddell, Head of Enterprise Solutions at Standard Life, learns timeless lessons from one of history’s great problem solvers in the first of a three-part series.

You need to be careful when you hang out with creative types. You think you’re having an innocent — and potentially quite dull — chat about a very old clock and, before you know it, you’re a cartoon Public Enemy tribute act. But it’s not the life of Flavor Flav I’m celebrating (I’m more a Chuck D guy anyway), the clock is an accidental, but entirely fitting, tribute to a very remarkable man.

I once visited the clock that you can see hanging round my neck. The museum guards and thick glass kept me at a distance. But as I stood in awe staring at such a beautiful object the echoes of various family members exclaiming “you’re going to visit… a clock?” drifted away to nothing. The clock in question is called H4 and was made by a man called John Harrison.

This is the story of the original Longitude Prize. I won’t repeat it all here, but if you’re unfamiliar with it I would encourage you to seek it out in book or TV series form. The question is, why is it relevant here? What can an 18th century clock tell us about the future of money?

The story of the Longitude Prize can be distilled down to this, the quest for an idea to solve a problem. The problem was ships sinking and being able to measure longitude would help stop this. We’re trying to reinvent savings, so we set out in search of ideas.

Your first idea may be great but it may get better — don’t stop

The clue is in the name, H4. Yes, there was an H1, H2 and H3 that came before (and yes, I visited them all too). Harrison’s idea was as contained in H1 as, ultimately, it was in H4. But they don’t even vaguely look like the same thing.

Harrison never stopped inventing and improving, partly compelled to do so by the vagaries of the Board of Longitude but also because he realised that things could be better.

We have already been through several iterations too, we have tested, reacted to feedback and continued to challenge ourselves. And we won’t stop. Iteration is everything.

Ideas need to be tested

The rules of the Longitude Prize meant that Harrison’s clocks had to be tested. There is no doubt that Harrison would have tested anyway. That was how he was. And that’s how we are now. Always testing.

This is a test now. Rest assured if everyone hates what I’m writing, the pirate clockmaker version of me will only be a short chapter in my book of odd things I’ve done at work. This is how it must be. No idea has the right to persist in the face of evidence against it.

We will soon go into testing on the first versions of our app. I’d like to think we won’t need to change it much but we must be prepared to if the testing tells us we should. Harrison didn’t hesitate to move on from his first three versions, he knew it needed to be done. We will too.

Anyone can have a good idea

It is very easy to reduce Harrison’s Longitude Prize struggles to a simple battle between him and the Reverend Nevil Maskelyne. This is largely true but it is also true that the scientific community weren’t prepared to accept that their gnarly science problem could be solved by a clockmaker — and a northern one at that.

Well, we’re northern types and we strongly refute that, and the notion that only specialists can solve the problems in their specialism. That’s why we talk to real people and that’s why we explore many non-obvious areas looking for inspiration. We don’t believe we have the answers just because we have the job titles that suggest we should. Anyone can have a good idea and any idea can be good. You just need to be prepared to accept that.

Sticking to a bad idea can kill a good one

The aforementioned Reverend Maskelyne — very much the villain of the story — had his own idea. It was always rubbish but he never accepted it. Instead, he clung so tightly to the efficacy of his own idea that he prevented the merit in Harrison’s idea being seen.

You could even argue that the delay this caused resulted in more disaster for the Navy. We will have no such disasters as we will hold nothing so sacred that it can’t be challenged. Similarly, we won’t get so excited by an idea that we won’t allow ourselves to see the possibility in others.

Ideas need to be tenacious

Harrison’s pursuit of the Longitude Prize lasted over 30 years. If that doesn’t define tenacious then I don’t know what does.

I hope it will take us a little less time to win the prize but we know we need to stay tenacious. We know we’re approaching things, like Harrison, in an entirely different way, so we need to stick strongly with that belief, even when there are ‘Maskelynes’ telling us that their idea is better and ours won’t work. You can’t change things by giving in that easily. We won’t.

When we started this process I would never have expected to end up a cartoon and certainly not with H4 round my neck. I’m sure I’ll get some eye-rolling from my lovely family who don’t quite get my obsession with a few old clocks, but they know I won’t be swayed. They know I hold tenaciously to those ideas. Maybe that’s what the tattoo is all about!

You can follow Choices and Scott here on Medium for more, or drop us a line if you know someone we should speak to about building the future of life savings. Email simon_lyle@standardlife.com