"One must be God to distinguish successes from failures" Anton Chekov.
Most businesses continue to struggle by approaching highly dynamic markets with risk aversion as their primary guide. Yet, in recent times, the organisations that have continually outperformed the pack are perennial risk takers. They are the innovators. When it comes to innovation, it becomes impossible to distinguish success from failure.
For example, for years after Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard Law School to forward his fledgling company Microsoft, his mother, Mary, saw this move as a disastrous failure.
All too often we are quick to judge others or ourselves in an overly hasty manner to describe something as a failure. We come to this conclusion well before the facts have all come to their conclusion. The jury may be still out and we either give up, quit, or tell others to do so. When, in fact, something that seems such a great failure quite often is really a learning period from which we can and do learn great things. They also often lead us to great ideas and great successes.
The indistinct line between success and failure is often not seen clearly. Perhaps it would be more helpful to view that line as an interchangeable relationship of two supporting halves.
The Eastern perspective is traditionally more relaxed on this, tending to embrace paradox as a natural part of life. This dance of opposition can be seen in the concepts of yin and yang, dishes like sweet and sour and, crucially, in seeing crisis as a foundation for opportunity.
Success that Leads to failure ironically, short term successes are often a prelude to disaster. Take the idea of a quick fix that backfires. Like a cyclist who gets a puncture, when faced with a problem business people tend to look for a patch-up job that will get the show back on the road. In the short term they may proclaim, "Aha! I've found the way to deal with that." But if you are on a bad road that continues to cause more punctures and you keep on applying the patch-it-up-quick approach before long you will end up with a pretty sad looking wheel. And now you are so far down this road the idea of turning back seems ludicrous, as does continuing. What was a success became a failure.
An Innovation Approach: Japanese Samurai: Innovation is not a topsy-turvy unpredictable path that seems to lead straight into nowhere. It is a highly valuable and learned skill that must be mastered. Therefore, if you truly want to be mentored simply look to the Japanese Samurai for direction. Their life style and philosophy to life can provide examples of this art.
Samurais were well known for their effectiveness in battle, and their bravery in the field. They are also known as being the fiercest and most determined warriors that ever lived. The secret behind their success is the mindset that is central to their actions. They were centered, grounded, and they used that to guide their actions.
The focus of their battle, fight, or war was victory. They recognized this as a driving force to win. They honed another very special capability that is to remain in the present. This was not just a passing thought; they stayed in the present completely, not looking ahead much farther than the next move. Their spirit was the will to win rather that just the desire and hope of victory. This was their key to victory. They strove to achieve the goal, rather than ignore it.
Although the vision for an innovation may be large, such Apple's for IPods, the most we can ever truly see of the future is the next best step. It is important to bring our attention into this moment again and again, taking forays into the future, learning from the past and applying in the present. The key adversary of innovation is fixating on what worked in the past and what might go wrong in the future.
The enemy is looking into the future for what might go wrong or relying on the past for what will go right. The goal, therefore, is intended to be made and then filed away. Once you learn to let go of the goal you will learn to free up your mind to generate the steps to reach it. It may seem that some steps are irrational, but these must be taken. The greatest innovation were not based on what worked before, but were built on the known factors that needed to be taken as risks and that had to be acted on with a gut instinct.
Collaboration and Input: Any great goal requires a great team. This means that collaboration, speaking up, listening to new ideas and looking at it from another's prospective will achieve the greatest final performance. A prime example would be the philosophy found at IBM, "The greater the level of collaborative innovation, the greater the financial performance. This requires acquiring the skills needed to work together as one. Leave the leadership desires at the door, and collaborate to come out of top.
Embrace those failures. Sometimes things that don't work out simply needed a change of direction to change from a massive flop to a great boom. Therefore, the key to learning how to innovate is in consistently practicing it. Simply build upon what works and learn from what doesn't.
To master innovation you need to release yourself from the fear of failure and the need to succeed. In fact, an outcome orientation to innovation is the killer. If you or your team has a pattern of needing to be sure of your outcome you will only generate the kind of caution and paralysis stops you from ever achieving great results.
To truly embrace success you need to consistently work on developing a culture that is founded on reinvention. Only in consistently evolving to the needs of the company and the changing economy can you succeed in reaching your goal.
Business can learn great things from our children. To consistently grow they need to be open to vision, ideas, and look at the world with fresh eyes. They need to leave behind the deeply entrenched belief systems, and patterns of perception, along with the taboos and rules of the past. By changing our habits in thought we can change our outcome.
Most businesses continue to struggle by approaching highly dynamic markets with risk aversion as their primary guide. Yet, in recent times, the organisations that have continually outperformed the pack are perennial risk takers. They are the innovators. When it comes to innovation, it becomes impossible to distinguish success from failure.
For example, for years after Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard Law School to forward his fledgling company Microsoft, his mother, Mary, saw this move as a disastrous failure.
All too often we are quick to judge others or ourselves in an overly hasty manner to describe something as a failure. We come to this conclusion well before the facts have all come to their conclusion. The jury may be still out and we either give up, quit, or tell others to do so. When, in fact, something that seems such a great failure quite often is really a learning period from which we can and do learn great things. They also often lead us to great ideas and great successes.
The indistinct line between success and failure is often not seen clearly. Perhaps it would be more helpful to view that line as an interchangeable relationship of two supporting halves.
The Eastern perspective is traditionally more relaxed on this, tending to embrace paradox as a natural part of life. This dance of opposition can be seen in the concepts of yin and yang, dishes like sweet and sour and, crucially, in seeing crisis as a foundation for opportunity.
Success that Leads to failure ironically, short term successes are often a prelude to disaster. Take the idea of a quick fix that backfires. Like a cyclist who gets a puncture, when faced with a problem business people tend to look for a patch-up job that will get the show back on the road. In the short term they may proclaim, "Aha! I've found the way to deal with that." But if you are on a bad road that continues to cause more punctures and you keep on applying the patch-it-up-quick approach before long you will end up with a pretty sad looking wheel. And now you are so far down this road the idea of turning back seems ludicrous, as does continuing. What was a success became a failure.
An Innovation Approach: Japanese Samurai: Innovation is not a topsy-turvy unpredictable path that seems to lead straight into nowhere. It is a highly valuable and learned skill that must be mastered. Therefore, if you truly want to be mentored simply look to the Japanese Samurai for direction. Their life style and philosophy to life can provide examples of this art.
Samurais were well known for their effectiveness in battle, and their bravery in the field. They are also known as being the fiercest and most determined warriors that ever lived. The secret behind their success is the mindset that is central to their actions. They were centered, grounded, and they used that to guide their actions.
The focus of their battle, fight, or war was victory. They recognized this as a driving force to win. They honed another very special capability that is to remain in the present. This was not just a passing thought; they stayed in the present completely, not looking ahead much farther than the next move. Their spirit was the will to win rather that just the desire and hope of victory. This was their key to victory. They strove to achieve the goal, rather than ignore it.
Although the vision for an innovation may be large, such Apple's for IPods, the most we can ever truly see of the future is the next best step. It is important to bring our attention into this moment again and again, taking forays into the future, learning from the past and applying in the present. The key adversary of innovation is fixating on what worked in the past and what might go wrong in the future.
The enemy is looking into the future for what might go wrong or relying on the past for what will go right. The goal, therefore, is intended to be made and then filed away. Once you learn to let go of the goal you will learn to free up your mind to generate the steps to reach it. It may seem that some steps are irrational, but these must be taken. The greatest innovation were not based on what worked before, but were built on the known factors that needed to be taken as risks and that had to be acted on with a gut instinct.
Collaboration and Input: Any great goal requires a great team. This means that collaboration, speaking up, listening to new ideas and looking at it from another's prospective will achieve the greatest final performance. A prime example would be the philosophy found at IBM, "The greater the level of collaborative innovation, the greater the financial performance. This requires acquiring the skills needed to work together as one. Leave the leadership desires at the door, and collaborate to come out of top.
Embrace those failures. Sometimes things that don't work out simply needed a change of direction to change from a massive flop to a great boom. Therefore, the key to learning how to innovate is in consistently practicing it. Simply build upon what works and learn from what doesn't.
To master innovation you need to release yourself from the fear of failure and the need to succeed. In fact, an outcome orientation to innovation is the killer. If you or your team has a pattern of needing to be sure of your outcome you will only generate the kind of caution and paralysis stops you from ever achieving great results.
To truly embrace success you need to consistently work on developing a culture that is founded on reinvention. Only in consistently evolving to the needs of the company and the changing economy can you succeed in reaching your goal.
Business can learn great things from our children. To consistently grow they need to be open to vision, ideas, and look at the world with fresh eyes. They need to leave behind the deeply entrenched belief systems, and patterns of perception, along with the taboos and rules of the past. By changing our habits in thought we can change our outcome.
About the Author:
Author: Rha K. Cardinale is an expert at transforming organisations and to create a culture of innovation. Visit the "exciting Leadership" website for more information on building innovative teams
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