The Psychology of Innovation

One of my clients told me that innovation is moving so quickly right now that he goes to sleep at night and wakes up in the morning, and all of his team talents are rendered obsolete 12 hours later. That's it—skills that were useful yesterday are no longer relevant now.

This client works for one of the industry's current darlings, a well-known corporation. He is really concerned with innovation, as are many corporations right now.

So, what's the connection between psychology and innovation? Why should this be a worry when forming an inventive team? Why should I consider my team's psychological status, or psychological health?

The interesting thing is that in order to be open to change, open to learning, and open to developing and leaving our old talents and selves behind, we must have a strong sense of self.

We must have a very healthy ego. We've all met people with unhealthy egos, and we can recognize them right away. Typically, they are extremely egocentric, protective, boastful, and rigid, clinging to their individuality for dear life.

They are who they are; they embody that skill set. And that is the issue these days. In the tech industry, we need to adapt and change so quickly that if your identity is built on being a certain type of developer who knows a certain type of language, or a certain type of leader who is extremely knowledgeable about a specific tool, you must be able to let that go quickly and adopt a new identity.

What most people don't realize is that our identities, particularly those of people with strong, potentially pathological egos, serve as a protective mechanism. So, when you urge your team to innovate so quickly, you are essentially asking them to give up their identities and previous skill sets.

But the problem is that in order to let go of their identities and former skill sets, they must first be extremely healthy within themselves. They need a strong sense of self. They must have a strong psychological foundation.

Because we utilize these exterior shells, or egos, as a defensive mechanism, we are so uncomfortable in ourselves that we identify as, "I'm super smart in this type of technology," or "I'm the best in this particular skill, this is who I am." And if you want to innovate and you have a team full of individuals with these types of egos, you're going to have a difficult time because you're basically asking someone to psychologically damage themselves by removing their coping mechanism of having that ego.

This is a difficult task because removing someone's coping strategy usually causes them to break apart psychologically. So, of course, they'll do all in their power to maintain that identity. Of course, they are going to hold on.

That is what it will look like if you ask your team to be more inventive, to adapt, and so on, but your team does not follow through. Everyone just stays stuck, and you're like, "What the heck is going on?" Why are they not learning anything? Why aren't they trying new things?

It's because you're asking them to do something that will literally ruin their minds, mentally. So, you can't do anything until you first instill a healthy ego in the individual. Many people have unhealthy egos. Most people derive their feeling of worth mostly from who they appear to be publicly, such as their graduation, skill set, and awards.

So you're asking people to forget about all of their accomplishments and start again every single time, every single week, because the industry is changing so quickly, and we're all being told that it's only going to get worse; it's going to change even quicker.

So, having a secure sense of self is what fosters flexibility. We know from psychology that having a highly adaptable mind is the best indicator of mental health. And, often, as we progress toward mental disease, we notice a lot of psychological rigidity. So, whenever we are strict, it is a sign of psychological difficulties. And having a high level of flexibility is an indicator of good psychological health.

To be honest, most of us are not in our best psychological state. It's just that this does not happen in our society. We were not raised for it. We were not raised for the world we live in today. So, if you want to have a highly innovative team, you must invest in their psychological well-being, in providing them with a secure sense of self, and in perceiving their value as inherent rather than derived from their plaudits.

This is accomplished primarily through coaching and performance programs, such as the ones I work with.I've done this with multiple teams, and the results are fantastic when someone has a good sense of self. When someone recognizes their own worth, they can innovate like crazy. They are going to run. They will like learning. They will learn new things and be very happy about it since they will no longer need to cling to their previous skill set and identity as if it were a safety blanket that they couldn't let go of because if they did, they would fall apart.

So, if you're a leader, if you're leading a team, if you're trying to drive innovation and you're trying to keep driving it and driving it and driving it, and you see these teams, and you know they're super smart, and for whatever reason, they're just not doing it, like they're not innovating, and you're giving them all the resources, and you're like, "Hey, go learn things, go change, go try new things," this is why. This is precisely why.

If you've correctly nurtured them to have a stable sense of self, you'll be able to accomplish your goals with this team. You'll be able to innovate in the way you want to. But until then, it's simply not possible. You are effectively asking someone to run a marathon with a broken leg. You need to take them to someone to fix their limb. You must rehabilitate that. And then they will run the marathon.