I was in a meeting where someone was pointing out that we were facing a problem - a classic "chicken and egg" problem. It was a problem about scale and getting adoption of a system. On the one hand, it seemed that the system would need to have a critical mass of content before people would really want to use it. But on the other hand, organisations weren't in a rush to create the content because there wasn't yet a critical mass of people using the system.
I've heard the phrase plenty of times, and my response: let's roast some chickens and scramble some eggs!
When I roast a chicken, it takes planning, preparation and patience. It is really all about laying the right foundations, and then letting the oven do its work. With chicken-and-egg problems, one approach is to identify which actions can be taken as 'obstacle removers' - the things stopping the right foundations being laid to then empower people to get on with whatever they need to get on with in order to build adoption of the system. So, if it is messaging, get the right messages delivered. If it is principles, get those defined. Whatever those are, once they're in place, there is no point 'turning up the heat' from the sidelines and getting angry that things aren't moving fast enough. All you'll do is burn the chicken! Instead, it's about patience and waiting for the foundational work to do its thing, provided you have made sure those foundations are in place.
Does that mean doing nothing in the meantim? No! Now you can shift your focus to scrambling some eggs.
By this I mean really mixing things up. Thinking about everything you know about the problem and what is stopping it from moving forward, and then coming at it with a totally different approach. How could you change the incentive model? Or the 'definition of done'? Or the expectations that have been set with senior stakeholders? I have pointed out many times before that the definition of innovation is to create something new in order to change something established. That second part of the definition is the scrambling part. How can you focus on changing what is established about the adoption problem?
I'm not saying that this is easy, or that it applies in every circumstance. But I have found that it can often encourage out-of-the-box thinking, diversity of thinking and yes, innovation too.
If nothing else, it will give you some ideas for dinner.