The Innovator’s Toil

It’s Sunday morning. I’ve been cycling and suffering with hundreds of club mates in a virtual race up L’Alpe du Huez. It’s amazing how something innovative like the virtual cycling world Zwift quickly goes from being remarkable to just part of every day. What’s also strikes me as remarkable this morning is that business schools still don’t teach you what it feels like to climb the innovation mountain by taking an invention or idea to market.

In preparing for my research this summer I’ve been sharing a hypothetical abstract to hone my research question. Universally when people hear innovation is the topic they get excited. They speak as confidence experts, which they are, on their favourite theories, models or leaders of innovation. Which is great. Until I ask if these models and theories are so good why are only 6% of executives happy with their innovation efforts?

At this point, they become sad, maybe even a little mad. These are all successful innovation leaders, they know success and also pain. Yet they are strongly in the cult of rationality which is the foundation of business school logic. So before they hang up on me, I ask what it feels like along the innovation journey and suddenly an entire world opens up to them.

Predictably Irrational

We know from behavioural economics that people behave irrationally in predictable ways. We fall back on cognitive traps and shortcuts when faced with decisions. Especially fuzzy decisions, as innovation decisions are. Most business logic though is based on classical rationality and “expected utility” logically driving decisions. Hence why most organizations rationally score and plan roadmaps for potential innovation candidates. What we don’t understand very well is how our judgement gets distorted along the way and whether that’s why In the West we are suffering a decline in innovation.

My hope in the coming months is that the current awareness and willingness to address the emotional toll of events continues into all areas of work. Not just awareness but my wish is that in addition to helpful models and theory, business schools also teach emotional self-awareness and regulation. Especially in innovation where emotions are especially high given uncertainty, ambiguity and risk are high. The objective isn’t to fix or remove emotion from the boardroom. The goal is to be able to identify them and regulate it as part of the judgement process.

Going Negative

One thing that can help isn’t just to ask “how are we feeling” about something but to also acknowledge at times one needs to accept they are practicing what Keats coined “negative capability”. It is the ability to tolerate the pain and confusion of not knowing, rather than imposing ready-made or omnipotent certainties on an ambiguous situation or emotional challenge. It’s okay to feel not okay.

Next week I will elaborate on Negative capability and share an anecdote from a collaborative initiative I led with Jaguar Land Rover and Apple. I’m going to do a flurry of weekly newsletters for the next three weeks. to coincide with our experience emerging from the economic coma.

“The highest reward for a monk’s toil is not what he gets for it but what he becomes by it.”

— John Ruskin

Movements

In Zoomtopia, where work happens these days, I’ve teamed up with an old colleague Gillian to experiment with a new model remote of executive peer mentoring. As the trauma and burnout intensify we are trying to create an outlet to remotely share, reflect and learn amongst a group of executives leading through transition. You’ll hear more in a few months once we have some evidence on how it goes🎤. Likewise the Digital Product Innovation course I’m filming this week for the D&AD 🎬.

Most of my time is focused on designing my INSEAD research model to understand the productive zone of intra-psychic emotional conflict through innovation journeys🧐. In Connecting Dots 16 later this month I’ll provide a more in-depth preview👨‍🔬. Till then here’s a little teaser.

Thank you for your continued feedback. I appreciate hearing how you are getting on and any innovation paradoxes or questions on your mind.

Stay safe,

- Brett

PS Please share this newsletter with one acquaintance or on LinkedIn to help grow the Connecting Dots community.

Source Material:

McKinsey Innovation satisfaction - https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/how-we-help-clients/growth-and-innovation
Keats - Negative Capability
Predicably irrational - Prospect Theory

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