Courage is the stuff innovation is made of
In a recent article I argued that Innovative strength requires more just than Scrum and Lean Startup. I have mentioned a few but I have yet to name the central protagonist, which I consider to be the most important. Meet ‘Courage’
Innovation is a journey, we do not know where we will end up. Indeed that’s why it is innovation, after all. Elon Musk’s quest for a reusable rocket is one big adventure. The development of a self-driving vehicle is a venture into the unknown. So naturally, undertaking these adventures requires courage. Courage should be considered as the key cornerstone on which to build innovation culture with your team, the client and your work.
The word courage is reminiscent of knights and sailors who put their lives at risk in order to achieve a goal or to protect their loved ones. Courage without anything to lose is not courage. To stroke a hamster is not called courageous, but petting an alligator is. Running on a line on the ground is not, running on a tightrope is. The opposite of courage is cowardice or apathy, and visionary courage is often called recklessness.
Back to the team that wants to innovate. Which role does courage play there? Why is courage so important?
The courage to risk your job
If you work in a large corporate organization, you have a job. And if you have a job, you might work on your career. And because you work for most of your life, that career is quite important, and might very well prevent you from taking any chances. You stay nicely on the path. Never risk a slip-up.
So volunteering when somebody is needed to slay the dragon just around the corner requires courage. Courage to trust that this won’t cost you your job.
The courage to not need to be liked
Steve Jobs once asked Jony Ive “Why would you moderate your feedback? You simply shouldn’t care about how they feel! Otherwise you’re being vain; you want them to like you.” Not being concerned with whether the other person likes you makes giving feedback much easier. Which doesn’t mean that there are no best practices to present feedback as constructively as possible, or that you can now go ahead and act like a complete jerk. But honest feedback can only be given if you don’t necessarily need the recipient to like you. And that takes courage, because you might have visions of your future-self crying yourself to sleep, lonely in your bed without anybody liking you anymore.
The courage to trust your intentions
If the Chairman of the Board is tapping on her mobile during my presentation, I usually react to that. Many people find that a scary thing to do. We might get into a fight! I don’t think that way. I think: “Maybe her son is just out of surgery and she has a thousand reasons to be a bit absent-minded.”
I assume she has the best intentions, and therefore I don’t feel angry or offended. And I myself also have the best intentions, namely: to get the most out of this presentation together. That’s our common goal, right? So I say, “I notice that it’s distracting me a little. Shall I wait until you’re done?” I have the courage to trust my intentions and believe that she will do so as well in return. Easy as pie.
The courage to make yourself subordinate to the whole
A big ego is not a blessing. If you embrace the concept that you are the epicentre of the world, there is a lot of work to be done if you want to innovate together with your team. Because in order to innovate, the innovation has to be the epicentre and the common goal. And so you’ll only succeed if everyone puts aside their ego.
That requires a lot of courage. The courage to let go of how you relate to others. For some, offering to get some coffee for the team is quite a victory. Seriously: I meet teams where the people who do that are naturally seen as voluntary slaves and the center of ridicule and scorn. “Yes, and please polish our shoes as well!” This really happened.
The courage to be yourself
For many people the idea that you are what you do is a very safe one. I am director of a flourishing enterprise. I am the project manager of a successful project. If you think you are what you do, it will make your life pretty complicated. Because what happens when things do not go so well for a while?
I never call my kids, two great eleven-year-olds, stupid. I sometimes say their actions are. When you state for yourself that these are two different things, being and doing, then you’ll experience a lot of freedom. You can fail without being a failure. You can do something stupid without being stupid. That’s a liberating lesson I got from my parents. Be you.
Safety
A frequently-heard term in innovation culture is safety. A socially safe environment is a requirement to admit mistakes and to make yourself vulnerable. If everyone shows the types of courage mentioned above, that kind of security will grow organically.
The other way around: People who endanger a safe atmosphere are — except the mentally ill and religious extremists — almost by definition people who do not use the above principles. After all, nobody ever insulted another person because they were so kumbaya with themselves.
Look the dragon in the eye
Back to the courage of knights and dragons. ‘Always look the dragon in the eye’ is a rule which I use as often as possible. It means that you should not run away from stressful situations. Challenge yourself and show courage.
Why? “If you do what you always did, you’ll get what you always got”, NLP teaches us. Innovation needs so more than that. So be brave. Do it for yourself, for your team and for innovation.
