One of history's greatest quote machines, Winston Churchill, once said that success is based on going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm. I'm going to borrow that quote today and apply it to innovation success. Innovation success is based on going from "failure" to "failure" without a loss of enthusiasm. Here's what I mean by that.
Probably the biggest roadblock to innovation in most firms is what I like to call the failure expectation. I've rarely been in any firm that didn't have any ideas (if so, go ahead and close up shop). I've rarely been in firms where people thought they weren't creative, and most firms have been "innovative" at some point in their history. This means that every firm has the opportunity to innovate and some experience at doing so successfully. What inevitably creeps in is the fear of failing - not just at innovation, but at any new change or experience. This fear of failure isn't relegated to innovation alone, but to any significant change. The two easiest ways to kill an idea are to trot out the old saws 1) "The last time we did that it (fill in the blank) or 2) "We've never done that before". Both of these statements, which you will hear in every firm that attempts to innovate, indicate that safety and comfort and status quo have become more important than discovering needs and changing as the market demands change.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Innovate on Purpose: Innovation success is based on enthusiasm
Author: Jeffrey Phillips
