Spencer Silver, a retired 3M chemist, just passed away at 80. He invented the one thing that changed our work meetings forever. Not Powerpoint. Not the dial-in number. Acrylate copolymer microspheres, the adhesive that enabled the Post-It note. I immediately thought of that colleague who traveled everywhere with Post-Its stashed in his bag…just in case. I thought of the decline in sales Post-Its must have experienced during COVID. I wondered how workshops occurred pre-Post-It. Did worshops even exist pre-Post-It? It’s truly hard to imagine a pre-Post-It work world.

As with many inventions, Silver’s adhesive came from a failed experiment. In this case, it was arguably an enormous failure, since Silver was trying to develop an adhesive for aircraft construction. I wouldn’t have wanted to fly on that plane.

Silver knew he was onto something special with an adhesive that allowed you to stick and remove, stick and remove. He shopped it all around, spoke about it at seminars. No one had an interest. He was called ‘Mr. Persistent’ because he wouldn’t let it go.

Fast forward two years, Art Fry from the 3M tape division was looking for new product ideas, and shortly Post-Its were born. It took another several years for consumers to decide they needed repositionable squares, and now the squares are as fundamental to meetings as desks and chairs...and must be available in at least 4 colors so we can express ourselves clearly.

The life lessons here are:

• Success often comes from a failure

• Be patient. Fresh ideas can be difficult for others to grasp

• Two heads are better than one

Silver was also a 27-year heart transplant recipient, so the final lesson is to trust your instincts, and go after what you feel is right. We don’t know how long we have to stick around, so make an impact.

P. S. The next greatest invention should be the repositionable sticky dot for voting during workshops, don’t you think?