Think Your Idea Might Be Crazy? Here's Why You Should Go For It Anyway

If you are like most of us, there are a number of ideas that are cooking at any given time. But, what is it that makes it possible for an idea to jump from concept into reality? Do successful ideas that seemed crazy at the time have something in common? 

This is the fourth week we are taking a look at Guardrail #5—Step Back to Grow. When we have new ideas, sometimes we need to take the time to examine how ideas have succeeded or failed in the past.

Wondering why some ideas thrived and other ideas failed was part of the reason that Safi Bahcall, physicist, biotech CEO, entrepreneur, and tennis aficionado wrote the outstanding book, Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas that Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries. 

When I interviewed Safi on the Disrupt Yourself podcast it quickly became clear that he is a master at jumping to new S Curves driven by an almost insatiable appetite to learn. 

Part of that curiosity is about new ideas that have a big impact. As he did his research, he noticed a pattern. “The big ideas,” Safi said, “the ones that change the course of science, business, or history rarely arrive with blaring trumpets and red carpets dazzling everybody with their brilliance. They're usually dismissed for years or even decades and their champions are written off as crazy. There wasn't really a good word to describe it, so I made one up. I just called them loonshots.”

There are two types of Loonshots, the product, and the structure.

The product Loonshot, also called the P-type, are new products or technologies that people think will never work or there will be no market. Personal computers and digital cameras are two examples. 

The structure Loonshot is a small shift in strategy that people think won’t matter but has huge implications. The best example of this is Sam Walton moving his retail stores to rural America—no one knew that there was a pent-up demand in rural communities. “It was a Loonshot, but a Loonshot with no new technology. He just moved somewhere else and sold stuff a little bit more cheaply.” (Walton’s idea also followed Guardrail #1: Take the Right Risks. In this case, Walton took a Market Risk, going where competitors were not, versus a Competitive Risk, where competitors might have been—like a major city.) 

While Loonshots are instructive, they can also be cautionary tales. What was once a Loonshot will, by definition, stop being breakthrough. That’s why it is so important to practice Guardrail #5: Step Back to Grow. We have to remember to bring a critical eye even to those things that made us successful in the first place, to make sure they are still serving us. 

Safi used Pan Am Airlines as an example. They were a world-leading airline and kept doing the thing their original Loonshot— investing in bigger, better, faster planes and engines. That strategy worked great until it no longer did. The competition and the world had changed. Before they could adapt, they wound up declaring bankruptcy and were bought by Delta Airlines. 

Another important theme Safi noticed in his research were phase transitions. Phase transition is a scientific term where something shifts due to a small change in structure. Like water turning to ice at 32F/OC. “Every phase transition is a result of two competing forces,” Safi said. “When you bring a team or a company together, you also create two competing forces. Those two forces [are] stake in outcome and perks of rank.” If you are a small company, everyone is pulling for a common outcome. When you have a large company, “you shift from an innovative culture to a political culture.” 

If you want to set up or keep a culture of innovation, the best way to do that is by taking a look at incentives. Incentives drive patterns of behavior, whether we have deliberately set them up or not. If your company rewards rank, that system of rewards drives a political culture; people won't take risks because they're worried about their job title.

According to Safi's research, you can shift to a culture that is more innovative if you celebrate results. If in your organization, getting the best result–knowing that successful execution of the best idea is the marker of success–people will start to unite around promising ideas, even if they feel risky. Says Bahcall, “Fixing culture is very hard, but changing incentives can be very easy.” 

Will you take the time to step back and reflect on the small incentives that you can put in place (like a phase transition) that will allow you to remain innovative as you grow? What would happen were you to change incentives for your team, your company, or yourself? What are your Loonshots? What small shift in strategy could make all the difference? 

*****

If you enjoyed this article, here are two ways to stay in touch.

1. Sign Up for our Growth Through Disruption emails–––a weekly dose of personal disruption read by tens of thousands of people across the globe. No spam. Just a newsletter meant to help you grow faster. Sign up here.
2. Download this free resource on the seven guardrails of personal disruption. Visit whitneyjohnson.com/calm

*****

Whitney Johnson is the founder and CEO of WLJ Advisors, a boutique consultancy that helps leaders and the people they work with become fluent in the language of growth. Whitney is one of the leading management thinkers in the world, according to Thinkers50, the author of the bestselling Build an A Team and critically-acclaimed Disrupt Yourself, both published by Harvard Business Press. She is a world-class keynote speaker, frequent lecturer for Harvard Business School's Corporate Learning and an advisor to CEOs. She is a member of the original cohort of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith's 100 Coaches, and was selected as MG100 / Thinkers50 #1 Coach on Talent. Whitney has 1.8 million followers on LinkedIn, where she was selected as a Top Voice in 2018, and her course on Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship has been viewed more than 1 million times.?