“I haven’t failed; I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work” – Thomas Edison

Businesses experience disruptions all of the time. It’s a part of being in business. However, I think we can all agree that the magnitude of the economic shock delivered by the COVID-19 crisis is extraordinary – akin to the proverbial “burning platform.”

This crisis is truly unlike anything most of us have ever experienced before – and hopefully, we will never experience anything like this again. But every time our economy has experienced significant shocks, business all over the globe have risen to the challenge with remarkable resolve and ingenuity.

And throughout history, innovation has always been the key for surviving the “burning platform.”

While there is an abundance of really good literature out there that provides reliable “how-to” roadmaps for the innovation process; in my opinion, one of the most important ingredients is regularly overlooked. That is, having a culture and mindset that embraces and celebrates failure. And to be honest, not everyone is cut out for this.

The innovation road by definition is uncharted territory; it is often pretty bumpy, and is guaranteed to have some major potholes (my Kansas City friends can especially relate to this…). To be certain, the road to innovation success is littered with debris, unforeseen obstacles and abandoned vehicles.

If you are not mentally prepared to regularly experience, and learn from abrupt setbacks and failures, your path to innovation success will be quite a challenge – and this can be very costly because your organization’s future in the post COVID-19 “new normal” is dependent upon successful innovation.

Look, you are absolutely going to find many many ways and things that won’t work. That’s just a part of the bargain with innovation. Remember, you’re attempting to do something that has not been done before, and for which, there is no known outcome. Unless you’ve got a crystal ball, I can guarantee you that you will encounter many ways that won’t work! So, it’s best that you are prepared for it.

5 Components of Innovation Preparedness

The innovation process is essentially an experiment. Even if the overall outcome doesn’t turn out like you had envisioned or hoped, it can still be a highly valuable experiment! That is, as long as you are prepared.

In order to maximize your innovation learning and chances for future successes, you need to prepare yourself, and your organization for the inevitable, which is finding ways that won’t work – and learning from it!

There are at least five things you need to be prepared for as you pursue innovation. You need to be prepared to:

1.   Find way’s that won’t work – but that doesn’t mean you should go into an innovation attempt planning to fail!

2.   Figure out why your attempt (or which aspects of your attempt) didn’t work.

3.   Rigorously dissect every dimension of your innovation attempt along the way to determine which aspects of it are successful.

4.   Memorialize and socialize what you’ve learned. That is, create artifacts that you and others can leverage in the future.

5.   Refine your current attempt (or even start all over again) by leveraging everything you have learned.

If you employ these five innovation preparedness elements as you embark upon each and every innovation initiative, you will significantly increase your chances for innovation success. That is, ultimately finding that thing that does work!

Now let’s get innovating!