“Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” – Thomas A. Edison
To read much of what is written about innovation lately, you might wonder why people try to innovate. It seems that many pundits advise embracing failure. This is fundamentally wrong thinking.
I am not suggesting that those who test the boundaries of possibility through innovation will not meet with occasional failure. However, understanding that the road to realizing an innovative vision is not smooth does not equate to accepting failure. Quite the contrary, we must eschew failure if we are to maintain the momentum toward success. If you don’t believe, you can not succeed. We need only look to great innovators of the past to see that this is so.
An often cited claim is that Thomas Edison failed over three thousand times in his endeavor to develop the electric light bulb. In reality, this claim is a distortion of the facts. As late as 1878, Edison avoided working on electric lighting because “so many others are working in that field.” It was only after seeing an arc light system in the fall of 1878 that he decided to enter the fray (a decision that caused much grief later as his 1880 patent was invalidated a short 3 years later in 1883).
Edison began testing the working properties of different materials. His experiments were driven by his idea that, unlike the common approach of using thick conductive bars, the use of very thin resistive filaments would produce the desired result with complimentary practical benefits as well. Were these experiments failed attempts to innovate? Obviously, the answer is no. Each test was a small step on a purposeful path of successful innovation. Edison is credited with saying, “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.” These are not the words of one who embraces failure.
Edison, like many successful innovators, was highly disciplined in his approach to invention, as well as his attitude about his work. He developed his own system of innovation best practices, and ran his labs according to those disciplines. Organizations that wish to become innovation leaders would do well to learn from his example. These organizations should adopt a structured approach to their innovation practice and while they must accept that failure may occur, they must not embrace failure. Rather, they must embrace the challenge of success.
Innovation is about finding new and better solutions to problems. The successful innovator is one that seeks to find a solution when others would throw in the towel. This is harder to do than one might think. Slow progress, setbacks, and naysayers may test the innovator’s resolve. Conventional wisdom says that one must learn to fail fast. This is true. But, it is even more important to learn to distinguish between failure and opportunity.
A good definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results. That is embracing failure.
Even though Edison had a system it was very crude. he just kept trying new things until he found one that worked. He didn't understand how it worked.
There is a much better approach to innovation that starts with looking at the fundamentals so you don't waste time. Its called Predictive Innovation.
Posted by: Mark Proffitt | May 23, 2007 at 04:17 PM