Tag Archives: experimentation

Failure isn’t the goal for innovation

Jorge in Innovation

Cooking (Photo credit: omarbercor)

What if you could predict with certainty that people will love your new product or service? What if there was a huge scoreboard that would tell you that a massive amount of people will like what you are cooking up before the expensive launch? Business owners, and managers, tell me that they would love to know that whatever they are cooking up will work with certainty. This is a fallacy.

I’ve also heard managers say, as you have, that they much rather copy competitors than taking the lead themselves to avoid failure. Not surprising in my neck of the woods…

So, what does one tell these people and organizations? The current line of thinking is that one should “fail fast”. But this line of thinking has gone overboard. Some believe that “failure thinking” should be accepted. Let me make it clear: failure isn’t the goal. It is learning.…

To innovate, just try it!

Jorge in Innovation

to innovate just try it

“We can show mathematically that trial and error is 10 times more effective than knowledge.” – Nassim Taleb

A few days ago, I posted a valuable lesson of innovation. That learning, precedes innovation. When you think of big established companies, you immediately think R&D and how they use this capability to push it. Actually, R&D has nothing to do with pushing it. Especially, if it only leads to knowledge.

Think about it. Microsoft outspends Apple in R&D, yet Apple is the most valuable company in the world. Why is that?…

A lesson from NASA: Learning precedes innovation

Jorge in Innovation

In the above video, Cosmonaut Sunita Williams, gives us a tour of the International Space Station. It’s 25 minutes long, but I guarantee you it is worth watching.

Now, this post is about a lesson from NASA, and Ms. Williams doesn’t talk about any lessons about innovation. But what does, is a short paragraph in the Slate article where I found this video:…

What specific behaviors should be rewarded to drive innovation?

Jorge in Innovation, Question-To-Innovate, Questions

This is the tenth of a series of weekly posts where I will answer a few common questions about innovation. Please feel free to add your own response. Also, if you have any questions you think we should discuss, let me know.

Organization get the behaviors they reward. And this is especially true when it comes to innovation. Let’s suppose you want to become more innovative (who doesn’t?), where would you start? Everyone will start at the front end of ideation. But before you go there, ask yourself these questions: