Get over the wall: the innovator's attitude

Last week I spent a few days running a leadership course. The major focus was on paradigms people were viewing the world through. Why? Because in order to make big changes in behavior, paradigms need to be shifted. With the group, we examined participants’ lenses or attitudes and considered how they affect actions and consequently the outcomes we experience.

One of the activities in the week was to get the group over a 12-foot wall. It was fascinating to see how different people dealt with the challenge. One student held his hands like a stirrup and began tossing the students to the top of the wall. Some students were even climbing on the shoulders of their peers to get greater heights. No-one stepped in to stop them because everyone was having such fun and relishing the challenge.

In contrast, other groups I’ve worked with kept to the perceived rules, showed a much more conservative approach to the challenge and didn’t come close to achieving the great heights of this group. Some onlookers were worried about injury to body and self-respect and steered students away from attempts to solve the challenge.

I’ve worked with organizations (including schools) who have set up structures, teams, departments or processes to facilitate innovation. However, the overlooked and most potent tool is our paradigms; the ways we view the world. No time was spent shifting paradigms and thus little sustainable progress was made.

Do we view our work through a risk-averse, fear-of-mistake, I-need-to-know-the outcome mentality? Or does our attitude embrace a spirit of adventure, boldness, and daring? Here are some key understandings about innovation that I gleaned from the ‘wall challenge’.

1.     There is a boldness of spirit in leaders. This energy flows down through the organization. Their paradigm is, “I embrace challenges and see failure as a learning opportunity not a setback”. This drives the group’s behavior. They feel an energy and have a desire to succeed regardless of the risks needed to be overcome.

2.     It is difficult to be fast and flawless. The students made mistakes. They clattered against the wall, fell over and couldn’t always get over the wall. They were seldom certain of their plan would work. But they tried, experimented and took risks. They had a time limit so had to work quickly and relentlessly. The paradigm they had was, “I can persist in the face of setbacks.”

3.     Innovative organizations accept the risk and the adventure of not knowing until they give it a go. But we tend to focus on method and process to get things exactly right. Innovation requires daring. Being overly concerned with making mistakes or having everything perfect will inhibit progress. This is not about throwing caution to the wind. It’s about being brave enough to innovate when we don’t know exactly how things will turn out and then being open to feedback and agile enough to make ongoing improvements. The problem with innovation is that we don’t exactly know how it will turn out. That’s why it’s innovation. It is simply too different from anyone’s experience for them to know 100% whether a customer will appreciate it or not. The leadership paradigm is, “I’ll know when I have a go!”

Innovation is an attitude. Great leaders are willing to risk being thrown into the wall, have a scratch or bruise or maybe be a little embarrassed. Those who are not will escape the bumps and bruises as they stick to what they know works. They may not leap as far and as high though.

photo: http://munfitnessblog.com/what-workout-to-do-before-you-learn-parkour/