“Those who never change their minds, never change anything” said Winston Churchill.
Might be time to change our thinking about innovation. Most important story is the one that you tell yourself. Just about every company or organisation’s story says they are -- innovative. Spurred by imagination and creativity, everyone agrees innovation fuels growth.
Yet true innovation is rare. It’s much easier to create the fluff of innovation hype, while staying in no- effort ‘safe zone of average’ -- stuck in the default setting of inertia.
Latin word inertia literally means ‘inertness’, meaning laziness, being idle. “A body in motion tends to stay in motion, and a body at rest tends to stay at rest” is a way to express Newton’s first law of motion.
“One reason we resist change is that keeping things the way they are requires almost no effort. This helps explain why we get complacent. It takes a lot of effort to build momentum but far less to maintain it. Once something becomes 'good enough', we can stop the effort and still get decent results. The inertia default leverages our desire to stay in our comfort zone, relying on old techniques or standards even when they’re no longer optimal.”
“Another reason we tend to push back against change is that doing something different might lead to worse results. There is an asymmetry to change – we take negative results to heart more than positive ones. Worse results make us stand out for the wrong reasons. Why risk looking like an idiot when you can remain average? We’d rather be average than risk the possibility of landing somewhere below average,” writes Shane Parrish in his book Clear Thinking.
Innovation can take many forms: disruptive and reverse to name but a few examples. ‘Creative destruction’, a distressing term, is the daily reality of business and economies.
Clayton Christensen introduced the concept of disruptive innovation in his landmark 1997 book The Innovator's Dilemma, ranked in the top seven management books ever written. In essence: startups can disrupt established businesses by introducing simpler, more affordable, or accessible products that initially serve often less profitable niche markets, but gradually move along the value chain upmarket.
‘Dilemma’ is that corporates are dismal at disruptive innovation, thanks to following traditional MBA thinking, making it almost impossible for them to spot imaginative products and talent.
Creative destruction is the idea of economist Joseph Schumpeter where innovation disrupts and replaces old industries and economic systems.
Reverse innovation introduced by Vijay Govindarajan noticed innovations that originate in developing markets, often spread to developed ones. Point being that -- emerging economies can drive global innovation by addressing their unique challenges first.
To shift or not to shift
Innovation involves a shift in direction, a change in perspective. An awareness of noticing what was often plain sight.
A willingness to be empty, not so full of ourselves, that we can’t fill our cups with new thinking. It usually means letting go of ego, a willingness to give up always being right.
Not stuck in an inertia default, an example of a recent more ‘out of the box’ thinking is Daniel Midega, who together with a few close friends, co-founded The Private Drive, a social enterprise dedicated to harnessing the power of recycling, to restore nature and create green jobs for vulnerable communities.
One of their flagship initiatives is the G-Bag programme, which transforms discarded flexi-plastic waste into durable, eco-friendly school supplies for underserved children in rural Kenya. Beyond creating sustainable school bags, the initiative empowers women through vocational training, fostering a sense of independence, while addressing climate change by repurposing waste materials.
Quite ambitious they are exploring innovative ways to repurpose recycled plastic bottles to bring sustainable lighting solutions to rural and underserved areas in Kenya. And are in the process of researching other ways to repurpose waste materials.
For example, exploring: decarbonising construction by creating sustainable and affordable building materials for underserved areas and general affordable housing. Not in the zone of the average, they are examining repurposing waste to build roads in flood-prone rural and peri-urban areas, particularly those disproportionately affected by climate change.
“The zone of average is a dangerous place when it comes to inertia. It’s a point where things are working well enough that we don’t the need to make any changes. We hope things will magically improve. Of course, they rarely do,” notes Parrish.
The writer is a director at aCatalystConsulting. Email: [email protected]
