S7 E42 Stop Sabotaging Your Ability to Innovate. Avoid these psychological traps with Jeremy Gray

(Based on article of the same name published in HBR Nov-Dec 21 issue. Authors: Cyril Bouquet, Jean-Louis Barsoux and Michael Wade) Link to article: https://hbr.org/2021/11/stop-sabotaging-your-ability-to-innovate

There’s a way to do it better; find it Thomas Edison

Innovators can be their own worst enemies. Confidence optimism, traits that are important for innovation can derail a project when taken to excess. Emotions such as fear, doubt, regret and frustration which are often associated with doing something new can stall or destroy an effort. Why Kodak did not successfully develop a digital camera. The fear of getting started – moving from thinking to doing. Doing incurs risk. Jeff Bezos told his boss at a hedge fund that he was thinking of selling books online. His boss replied ‘I think that would be better for someone who didn’t already have a good job” When faced with fear consider: Consulting your future self: We are hard wired to avoid risky behaviors Consider future regrets – how would you feel in the future if you did not take this chance. Don’t focus on the pain of failure, imagine how you would feel if you played it safe and shelved your idea. Let fear be teacher Its natural to question your new idea Ignoring this fear can be a mistake. Fear can be a teacher, a warning that maybe you are underequipped or underinformed. Find the cause of your unease and address it Learn from setbacks. Learning from failure is not automatic. It requires effort and discipline. Dissect your failure. Failure often generate negative emotions that do not help learning Analysis your setback – What exactly went wrong? Why? Which assumptions proved true? Which assumptions proved to be incorrect. Face your grief head on – a three step process Acknowledge your feelings – discuss them with friends and family. Accept the facts Let go of the loss and move on Reframe Rejection – James Dyson pitched his bagless cleaner to leading vacuum brands and was rejected. Dyson reframed rejections by focusing on what the companies had not said. They offered no rationale for turning him down. Can there be an excess of creativity? Your belief in a new idea can override the need to stay on course. You may get drawn down a new path and lose sight of your original purpose. Ask the fundamental question – how does this fit with my strategy? If you are struggling with your base business, the new idea could lure you off track. The moment of greatest peril comes when switching from thinking to doing. Do not allow yourself to be distracted. Elon Musk talking about SpaceX and Tesla “Prioritizing has usually been out of desperation not choice” Set limits on your involvement at testing and implementation stages. Enlist a counter weight – a partner who can curb your enthusiasm How to make the most of your tenacity. Identify what is most important and let other things go Take breaks – relentlessly pursuing a goal can alienate your support network. Ask for feedback.

Your creativity is what got you into business in the first place. If you manage it, it will be one of your greatest assets. Let it manage you and you could be heading for trouble. Do not be afraid to change your plans. “When the facts change, I change my opinion. What do you do Sir?” Attributed to Keynes but more likely spoken by Paul Samuelson.