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IF you’re free this Thursday, do join me at The Royal Yacht. I will be presenting on unconventional ways for leaders to increase productivity in �鶹����. Entrance is free, courtesy of PFS, so long as you register in advance.

Unconventional thinking has been a lifelong passion for me. There are few things I admire more than that irrepressible maverick spirit that insists on finding a way, of going against the grain, of tugging at the loose threads of a problem until it unravels.

It was my father who kindled the fire.

I grew up quietly observing his somewhat scatological approach to life, and a good deal of it rubbed off. The concepts I’ll share on Thursday derive from studies published in the likes of Forbes and Harvard Business Review. But they also contain shades of my old man’s uniquely weird genius.

Like many intelligent, but somewhat offbeat, individuals, my dad had several careers, none of them related. He directed videos. He worked on aeroplane engines. He wrote movie scripts and he flew a small aircraft as an ambulance service over some of the wilder bits of the African coastline.

At one stage, he also worked for a hospital, though not in any medical capacity. He was a maintenance manager. And it wasn’t just any hospital. It was a mental institution. My dad quickly discovered that the patients were perfectly lovely. Turned out it was the staff who were completely bonkers.

One memorable morning, my dad was late for work, and the car refused to co-operate. It simply would not shift into first, no matter how hard he tried. It wouldn’t go into second either. Nevertheless, with a little jiggling, my dad discovered something interesting. It was quite willing to slip into reverse.

Undeterred, my Dad backed out of the driveway. And just kept backing out. Into the morning traffic.

Looking over his shoulder, he set off backward on a drive of several kilometres.

Heavy morning traffic is globally regarded as a curse. That day, on the west of Johannesburg, it turned out to be a blessing. So long as everything is moving slowly, it’s actually quite easy to drive backwards and just go with the flow. That’s the sort of life advice my dad passed on to me.

The hardest part, he testifies, was all that eye contact. People can be quite rude, the way they’ll just stare.

He made it most of the way there before the sirens began. You’d think the police had better things to do than harass people on their way to work. Our taxes pay their salaries, you know.

Anyway, the cop pulled my dad over and indicated to “please wind down your window”. Being the law-abiding sort, my dad politely complied. The cop said: “Sir, just where do you think you’re going?” And my Dad answered honestly: “The local mental hospital.”

That was when the policeman told my Dad to “please step out of the car”.

I had an interesting youth. And did I mention that I enjoy unconventional thinking?

Since then, inspired by his beautiful mind, I’ve been fascinated by unusual modes of reasoning. I study lateral thinking, Gordian-knot problem-solving, faster ways of getting to results. I’ve seen the principles underpinning my dad’s approaches to problems pop up in some fascinating places, including the likes of Harvard Business Review.

One of my main keynotes these days is actually titled Thinking Against the Grain for Leaders, and it’s in no small part to his credit. I’m also the author of a Penguin business book titled They’re Your Rules, Break Them. Him too.

If you’re there on Thursday, I’ll tell you about my dad’s backyard rope-swing. The one he built in defiance not only of common sense, but every safety standard since the dawn of civilisation, which nevertheless out-performed all other entertainment options in our neighbourhood by an order of magnitude.

The presentation will be titled Breakthroughs That Speed up Everything. You can book on Eventbrite, by searching: PFS Autumn �鶹���� Conference – Thursday 5 September. I’m up just after lunch, and I’m honoured to be joined by Paul Murphy, chief executive of �鶹���� Business.

If you lead a group of people, and if you’re keen to up your productivity, I may have some useful insights for you. Fear not, I won’t recommend driving habits likely to attract the attention of the States of �鶹���� Police.

But I will challenge you to ask whether you are blindly doing things the way they’ve always been done. I’ll recommend hijacking useful principles from outside your industry. I’ll even get you to imagine eating a steak on the Starship Enterprise, an exercise that might help you better serve your clientele.

I’d love to see you there. Until then, remember: Rules were made to be broken. And you can get there just as fast in reverse.

• EventBrite Link: eventbrite.co.uk/e/pfs-autumn-jersey-conference-thursday-05-september-2024-tickets-1004942749817?aff=erelexpmlt

• Douglas Kruger is a ‘Hall of Fame’ speaker, and the author of ten business books with Penguin. A member of the Professional Speakers Association UK and Ireland, he lives in St Helier, but speaks all over the world.