In life, it is essential to be content when it comes to certain things. However, when dealing with innovation, that is far from the case. When an innovator decides they are satisfied with their product or idea, they will be in for an unpleasant surprise. This contentment can be the ultimate enemy of innovation.

Virtue or Enemy of Innovation?

The state of contentment is a state of peace, satisfaction, and acceptance of a situation, outcome, or circumstance. While this sounds great, issues arise when one becomes so content they give up. When people choose contentment, they often avoid any conflicts or challenges. Innovation is all about finding ways to improve things. When an innovator is content with where they are, they develop a false feeling that change is slowing down. This false sense causes the innovator to miss warning signs of an incoming change.

Contentment will lead you to avoid risk and change. The contentment then acts as an innovation antibody. Now you can see how contentment is the enemy of innovation. True innovators are never content with where their products or ideas are. Instead, they are constantly working to improve them.

My Experience with Contentment

During my life, there have been a few times where I fell into a state of contentment. I allowed myself to check out and remain on autopilot. I was satisfied with my successes, but my state of contentment was short-lived. These phases were because of some disruptive shocks that occurred in the world around me at these times. When these changes happened, they shook me up, and my contentment rapidly disintegrated. It was then that I learned how contentment is the enemy of innovation.

Avoiding Innovation Contentment

Here’s what you can do to avoid the enemy of innovation. Firstly, challenge yourself to do things that make you uncomfortable. Try a new hobby, learn a new instrument, play a new sport, etc. This challenge will give you a new perspective and keep you from being stagnant. Secondly, you can change up the way you do things. This change can be simple, like switching up your morning routine or driving a different way to work. Thirdly, you can try some creative muscle exercises.

Start with challenging yourself to come up with five problems that need solving. These can be personal things, work or school-related, things for a non-profit, etc. There will never be a shortage of issues that need solving. Doing these things will keep you creative and alert, avoiding the enemy of innovation known as contentment.

A vital function of an innovation leader is to motivate, support, and point their team to good habits. Doing this should be a daily activity. Modeling leadership habits and exhibiting leadership skills inspires employees to become leaders. With this inspiration, employees will become more efficient and innovative. This effect can be created through a list of questions to ask your employees.

Top Questions to Ask Your Employees

The first question on my list is, “What went well last time we met?” Once you ask this question, it is important to be a good listener. Next, offer them your appreciation for their work, and offer your support. Focus on reinforcing the idea that innovation is about the team. The second question on the list is, “What went wrong and what was the lesson you took from it?” When dealing with innovation, we can’t always be in complete control of the situation. Failures are bound to happen. As an innovation leader, you must encourage your employees to share their failures and learnings. Having a culture that embraces experimentation leads to greater innovations. Additionally, the organization can learn from that failure and avoid it altogether in the future. Number three on my list of questions to ask your employees is, “What did you find that could be improved, and what did you do to improve it?” This question is vital because it permits employees to fix things. In doing so, the employees learn some important lessons. Firstly, they learn that everyone in the organization is in it together. Secondly, they learn not to throw their problems on someone else, but to take initiative.

Creating a Motivating, Clear, and Honest Environment

The fourth question is, “how can I create a motivating environment?” In my organization, we give out gift cards to recognize employees’ good efforts and innovation habits. To create a motivating atmosphere, you need to actively listen and be approachable. Additionally, you need to recognize when someone does something well by publicly acknowledging it.  This shows others what habits and actions to strive for in their team and organization. The fifth question I ask is, “What roadblocks are you facing and what can I do to clear them?” As a leader, your job is to sift out things that hinder productivity. Roadblocks can be large or small issues. Leaders should remove barriers so that their teams can stay focused on what’s important.

 Lastly, I ask my employees if there is anything else they want to talk about. This open-ended question allows employees to share other things on their minds. One of my organization’s core values is “candor with respect.” This gives employees the confidence to be transparent and frees them from concern about negative reactions. Protect confidentiality so employees feel they can open up. I’ve had employees present challenges in their personal lives. In some cases, I’ve been able to help. The results have improved employee morale and generated positive change for the organization.

Let’s say your organization tasks your team to generate a new product or service idea. You gather your team together and get ready to brainstorm, thinking you can’t go wrong. Contrary to common thought, when brainstorming problem statements, things can go wrong. Often, teams will jump into brainstorming sessions, forgetting a vital step of the process. This step is known as the area of focus.

When it comes to assembling your team to brainstorm problem statements, developing the area of focus is beyond critical. As a team leader, it is essential to explain a few key things to your team. Firstly, you need to explain who has the problem. Secondly, it is crucial to lay out what the problem is. Lastly, you explain why the problem is essential to solve.

Elements of A Good Problem Statement

When brainstorming problem statements, a set timeframe will help a team put all their energy and attention into creating that area of focus. This time is vital because a well-defined focus from a solid problem statement will generate more and better ideas. A well-thought-out problem statement either solves a problem, removes a barrier, or improves an experience. Don’t forget that problem statements need to be concise without implying or stating a solution.

It is also crucial that they are specific enough to the point where they are solvable by your organization within that timeframe. This process is not easy. As a result, I spend four to eight hours crafting, testing, and validating a problem statement.

Generating As A Team

There are a few key steps needed when successfully brainstorming problem statements. Firstly, you need to get together and brainstorm the problem. This step includes gathering a list of problems and challenges, any organizational friction or barriers, and unmet needs within the organization. The second step is to have your team answer the “what, who, and why.” Thirdly, you need to take the gathered data and plug it into one of the templates to generate the problem statement.

Next, repeat the “who, what, and why,” drafting multiple versions of the problem statement. Lastly, test it with the “who,” or your organization’s target segment. Once you have a version of the problem statement you think works, test it with others. The test is best done by writing it out and making it concise. Like I always say, never use yourself as a proxy. Next, ask your organization some questions to validate the problem and problem statement. Once validated, you are ready to present your problem statement to your team so they can begin brainstorming.

Many people spend years of their lives searching for the secrets of success. Most people believe success comes from doing what successful people do. 1986, “In Search of Excellence” came out, which sought to identify shared practices of 10 successful companies and publish them. This book was the first one in its genre. Did these companies become successful out of luck?

Let’s try this strategy by taking fifty firms featured in three best sellers in this genre – In Search of Excellence, Good to Great, and Built to Last. Of the firms covered by these books, sixteen failed within five years, twenty-three underperformed the S&P 500, five became exceptional, and the remaining six became average. Only 10% of these “role model” companies became successful.

Now let’s look at the area of music. If you look at an artist that had a top 20 song, should you sign that artist? Your gut would probably say yes. A study looked at 8,300 artist’s songs from 1980-2008. It concluded that rather than signing the artist in the top twenty of 100 songs, you would have better market success picking the artist ranked between 22-30.

In many cases, songs that get top spots are “one-hit wonders.” The artists that tended to have more career success were the second-best to start with. Smart agents sign artists in the mid-twenty to thirties range because they got there by skill and not luck.

Luck’s Role in Innovation

People often confuse luck with taking a risk. By luck, I mean going from good to great out of nowhere. The difference between an okay innovation and a breakthrough is all about the right timing. Some levels of success can be attributed to the innovator, but luck often plays a big part.

When I think of luck, I think of it in the construct of a 2x2 matrix. The horizontal axis is the level of luck, the left side being zero (no luck), and the right side being 100 (every perfect condition). The vertical axis is your innovation capability, the lower part is zero (no innovation capability), and the top is 100 (innovation perfection).

In the lower left-hand corner, with no luck and no innovation capability, you have no chance. If you don’t innovate and leverage any form of luck, competition will eat you up. In the upper left, where you have great innovation but no luck, you might have some mediocre success, break even, or get acquired by someone. With unbelievable luck but no innovation capabilities in the lower right-hand corner, you have “blind luck.” Many people think they can consistently achieve success through luck, but it is not a strategy. In the upper right-hand quadrant, you have unbelievable innovation capabilities, and luck comes along.

Final Thoughts

In some cases, you can position yourself to achieve breakthrough success. It’s important to know when to pause an idea. When luck raises its head, you can take advantage of it and create that innovation success. Don’t think that you can do whatever someone like Elon Musk did and achieve the same level of success. It would be best if you recognized that you aren’t in complete control. Don’t try to control luck, but use your innovation capabilities to create ideas and have them ready to move forward with them when the timing is right.

To know more about achieving innovation success through luck and skill, listen to this week's show: Innovation Success, Skill or Luck.

A challenger is someone who ignores old thought patterns, doesn't let others hold them back, and confronts the dominant player. In the story of David and Goliath, David defeated the giant because he approached him differently. As an organization, you need to think differently to challenge a well-accepted market leader. Challengers fight smarter, with focus and a clear purpose. Being a challenger is a mindset as much as anything else. 

How to Become the Innovation Challenger

History is full of innovation challengers that upset prominent industries. Take Google, for example. Yahoo had 95% of the market share when Google started. Google's success came when they pivoted their innovation to an automated page rank algorithm. The most popular pages floated to the top, which people loved. Google stayed focused and had a purpose, resulting in a David and Goliath type of victory. They currently have around 92% of the market share.

Another example is SpaceX. Space exploration and travel used to be strictly government-based. In 2006, SpaceX challenged the space launch monopoly that Lockheed Martin and Boeing held. As a result, SpaceX went from a 1.5% market share in 2008 to roughly a 22% market share in 2020. How does SpaceX differentiate itself? By reusing rockets after launches, saving millions of dollars. Google and SpaceX are now Goliaths because they became innovation challengers. 

Establishing an Innovation Challenger Mindset

Firstly, you need to understand the Goliath deeply. It would help if you studied the culture, organization, key influencers from the inside and out, investors, board, company history, etc. If possible, buy and use their products. Follow them on social media, sign up for newsletters, call their support line, buy through their sales channels, etc.

Secondly, accept all negative feedback as opportunities. Don't rationalize away people's complaints about your products or ideas. Use them as ways to improve. Practice active listening and address feedback. An excellent example of this is Zoom. At the beginning of COVID, Zoom quickly rose to the top but started having issues. To address these issues, they did regular meetings to gather feedback from people. They responded successfully to the problems, leading them to where they are today. 

Thirdly, look for other parallel industries that have challengers. It is surprising how many ideas you can take from totally unrelated areas. Figure out how to apply what you have learned from other industries to your own. Number four is to build an "innovation red team, " a team of outsiders that challenges your assumptions. You want these people to be brutally honest with you and to point out your blind spots. I still have blind spots, even though I've been in the innovation game for forty years. It is vital to permit these people to challenge you. Doing this will make you more successful as an organization.

Lastly, encourage your team to experiment and try new things. Have a culture that teaches failure as a learning experience and not a negative thing.