Risk and failure are the building blocks for future innovation and leadership.
Here’s a new word I just picked up during some recent networking. “Corporatypes. Professionals addicted to a corporate culture of zero risk for monetary gain. The self-preservation through power and position verses invaluable contribution and long-term business growth.” What a great definition for the times and the world we live in. And what a great way to springboard into a topic that has been rattling in my head for months.
Now before I begin writing another provocative and edgy insight, I want to be clear. This is not an attack on corporate America. I am here to raise questions about things we are all seeing. In the current economic climate, where people are struggling to secure their jobs and avoid risk at all costs, can a large corporation truly incorporate innovation?
Here’s the challenge as I see it. Successful innovation comes from accepting risk and failure as crucial proponents of invention and leadership. For generations an assembly line mentality geared us into thinking that the only way to be successful is to minimize decisions as a means to avoiding risk and mistakes. What was an asset for the industrial revolution is a liability moving into the 21st century. Innovation is now mistakenly viewed as a seamless, orderly production process, instead of eratic, messy troubleshooting that leads to its invention. Today, businesses are shifting from product to more service-based offerings. They need the leadership and room to think, fail, collaborate and solve their customer’s unique problems. Unfortunately, most corporations lack the legal and financial dexterity to accept failure at any level. So they try to avoid it… even hiding it from both the public, and still worse from themselves, thereby missing many opportunities to learn and grow.
One could say then…
a) Accepting risk/failure promotes evolving innovation and strong leadership.
b) Rejecting risk/failure promotes indecision and diminished leadership.
Do you see the irony here? And, perhaps, some opportunity as well?
Let’s play out this formula a tad further.
Corporations that fail to incorporate innovation in daily practice could produce the very incentive and leadership required for competition to thrive. GM’s acceptance of TARP helped muster Ford’s vision and leadership to fly solo without help from the government. Microsoft’s fixed thinking about software and customer service, opened opportunities for Apple to become an innovation powerhouse in the technical sector.
But let’s take the formula even further; bring it closer to home, into daily life and work.
As traditional corporations continue employee layoffs to maintain their bottom-line, other progressive organizations and individuals are now looking for innovative ways to retain the talented resources drifting in the wake of the recession. New work arrangements are beginning to form. And people are adjusting and discovering new ways to restore work and life balance that are NOT dependent on large corporations.
So you see, the failure of a corporation to innovate can produce innovation. Unfortunately, the innovation befalls not the corporation, but rather, their competition and the creative people they left behind.
