Illustration by: iStock.com/tiero
Innovative solutions to complex problems aren’t driven by visionary concepts alone. In fact, it’s difficult to predict which ideas will end up being winners and which ones will turn out to be duds. So, how do you increase the odds of bringing a genius idea to light?
Encourage unconventional thinking and embrace failure, advises William P. Barnett, The Thomas M. Siebel Professor of Business Leadership, Strategy, and Organizations at Stanford Graduate School of Business and a professor at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. Barnett, who also teaches Executive Education programs, discussed how far-fetched ideas can help organizations address challenges in an episode of the If/Then podcast. “Organizations that create lots of foolishness also create a lot of genius,” he says.
Start with Strengths, Not Outcomes
When an organization faces a problem, it’s common to decide on a solution and then work toward it. But Barnett maintains that may not be the best course of action, especially with daunting issues like climate change and sustainability, since it limits the potential for creative paths forward. Instead, he suggests identifying the strengths of the organization and its employees, then exploring how those capabilities can be applied to the challenge. This approach may lead to a higher rate of initial failures, but it also increases the likelihood of a surprising, genius-level solution.
Barnett gives the example of the flourishing Israeli startup ecosystem. The vast number of startups tended to focus on certain sectors of the economy, like video games or delivery services, so over the last few years the government decided to incentivize entrepreneurs to take their strengths and apply them to sustainability. The result? Technologies initially developed for other purposes were adapted to capture carbon, create biodegradable plastics, and more, leading to unexpected but effective solutions.
Systemize Failure
In order to create a culture that inspires genius ideas, it’s crucial to accept that failure is part of the innovation process and to learn from it. At the same time, you should limit the scale of initial experiments so failures won’t hugely impact the organization. “It’s a famous problem that folks will test an innovation by scaling it,” Barnett says. “When you do that, your failures are gigantic and expensive and they contaminate the culture of the organization.”
Cultivate a working environment where employees are encouraged to generate a high volume of ideas — including seemingly foolish ones. That also means making sure you aren’t punishing failure, even inadvertently through incentive programs that reward less innovative but safer ideas. “People don’t want to be seen as a fool in an organization that penalizes failure. They’re going to keep their heads down,” Barnett notes. “You want to systemize failure, because it’s a normal part of an innovative organization’s life.”
Effect Transformational Change
Innovation comes in many shapes and sizes and with varying degrees of impact. Barnett gives the example of a construction company trying to improve its sustainability practices. Leaders can implement small, easy changes — think holding a summit virtually instead of flying participants to a destination. That type of incremental change is necessary, but it’s the disruptive changes — using a new building material that requires reworking designs, for instance — that will make a bigger difference. “If it makes it difficult to engage in business-as-usual, that’s a good sign,” Barnett says. “That means it’s a transformational change.”
Along with challenging the status quo, innovative organizations promote non-consensus thinking. “If people are agreeing with your ideas, that means they’re completely consistent with their outlook right now,” Barnett points out. “You want to put forward ideas that are unique. They might well be foolish. But if they’re right, they’re going to be genius.” When leaders foster a culture of exploration, he continues, “the surprises that come along are typically vastly more impressive than anything our limited imaginations could have conceived.”
Putting Insights into Action
Whether you’re trying to shake up your business practices, develop a transformative new product, or address a complex issue like sustainability, here are ways to spark innovation within your organization:
- Focus on the strengths of the employees and the organization and find creative ways to apply them to the challenges you’re trying to address. You’re much more likely to discover imaginative solutions than if you start with a set outcome in mind.
- Implement processes that encourage experimentation and foolishness, and nurture an environment where it’s safe to fail. Test new ideas on a small scale to allow for quick and inexpensive failures, and use them as learning opportunities.
- Champion transformational change and unconventional thinking. Innovation that disrupts “business as usual” may be difficult and uncomfortable, but even with the risk of more frequent failures it will have a greater, longer-lasting impact.
