"That will never work!"

Everybody wants to be innovative. Innovation keeps you relevant and makes you future proof. Keeps you competitive and ahead of the game.?Most execs fundamentally understand that innovation is critical to their company’s success. Some will even set aside substantial funding to drive innovation and will hire people for that specific purpose. ?

But, once the rubber hits the road, and you truly get started with innovation, these are the common phrase you will hear:

“We tried that once already and it didn’t work”.

“We have always done it the current way and it has worked fine.”

“That idea is not close enough to our core capabilities.”

“We are different … and it would never work here because it doesn’t fit our culture.”

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I’ve heard them all. All the variations of “That will never work”.

History is full of examples of these “that will never work” people. They were in the meeting when Columbus proposed to Italian leaders that it would be profitable to sail west to India; they laughed Netflix out of the room when they first started out. But they didn’t have the last laugh.

Pessimism in the face of uncertainty and the new, is also quite natural. Nobody wants to fail. To be on the losing team. And it’s simply easier and less risky to reject an idea than to take a leap of faith.

But if the ‘That will never work’ people are consistently the most dominant voice in room – or worse, key decision makers – then you will not move forward. You will be stuck.

Companies are taking a high risk if they do not have a functioning innovation culture.?Where ideas (even the whackiest ones) are not shot down but encouraged. Where rapid, low-cost experiments, aimed at gather real market feedback as quickly as possible is central to all innovation activity.

To foster true and ongoing innovation, companies need to authentically address their culture. With the right mindset and commitment, this is highly doable – but not an overnight kinda thing.

In the meantime, here are some things you can do to minimise the impact of ‘that will never work’ people:

The Grumpy Dwarf + Olaf scenarios:

• At the beginning of a project, grant the critics their moment by asking everybody in the team (including the optimists) to look at an idea or business plan from Grumpy’s perspective.?
• What are all the reasons why it might not work? What are all the ways in which is could fail? Let them get it off their chest.?But then, require them to let it go.?
• Next, ask the whole team (including the critics) to take an Olaf (if you have kids you will be beyond familiar with this chirpy little snow man) perspective of the same idea or business plan. The idea is to jump to the extreme other side of the spectrum and to look at things through an (probably unrealistically) uber positive lens.?
• Now ask your team to look at things from a more realistic middle-ground, but with a positive slant.?This is where you will ask your team to stay for the remainder of the project.?

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Postpone and / or limit criticism: ?

It’s probably not conducive to banish all criticism. Constructive criticism is critical for the successful evolution of an idea.?However, too much criticism (and pure pessimism) is counterproductive. Make it a standard practice that criticism of new ideas must be postponed until after the idea is completely presented.?Then, limit the number of major criticisms of an innovative idea to three and only allow a single criticism from any one individual.

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Codify balancing negative with positive into all discussions:?

Encourage and expect the critics to present criticism alongside a more positive way of viewing the same argument.?Often both sides are true, however a focus on the negative will almost definitely manifest the negative. Whereas a focus on the positive, greatly increases the probability of a more optimistic outcome.

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Keep a ‘Debby Downer’ jar for the standard “innovation killer phrases”:?

These are the black and white statements, the all or nothing statements, like “it will never work.” The ones that are completely and wholly dismissive. Whoever comes out with these corkers, must pay a ￡1 (or ￡5, or ￡10!) fine into the Debby Downer jar.?

Keep it fun by using the money for something positive, like team drinks. ?But should the jar be empty by the end of a pre-decided period, treat your team to something better. I had one when I was running my startup and, when executed in a light-hearted way (that does not shame or embarrasses the critic), can work beautifully well.?The critics often end up smiling more and taking themselves a little less seriously.

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?Encourage “find a way” behaviour —?This is the most important one, but also the one that will take longer to encode into the culture.?It can’t be done overnight, but with consistent encouragement and leading by example, “find a way” behaviour will become the norm.

Encourage and reward individuals who constructively identify ways to work around potential problems. Celebrate individuals who “find a way” around both real and imagined problems. Make heroes out of individuals who find benchmark examples of where the new practice has succeeded.

?If a member of my team comes to be with a problem, I start by thanking them for bringing it to my attention. Then I gently ask them to think of 3 solutions. If they can’t think of any, I will brainstorm with them until we get there. Again, it’s all about where we place our focus.

?The difference between winning and losing, the difference between those who do and those who don’t is not talent or any magical formula. It’s character and human spirit. It’s about finding a way.?

#innovation #innovationculture #fortunefavoursthebold