In The Seven Faces of Effective Innovation I wrote about the difficulties innovators face when they start to change things. Other people don’t like change. And they have a couple of possibilities how to react to change. Their reaction tells you, where they are in a process of five subsequent steps.
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Ignorance
- When you first hear about something new, write it on a list and don’t bother any longer.
- If you hear about it for the second time, mark the item in your list and don’t bother any longer.
- If you hear about it for the third time, find out everything about it you possibly can.
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Insanity
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Hate
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Aggression
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Defeat
Most of the really good ideas never catch up because we’re so busy living with our good old habits. Of course, we don’t have enough time to track all the things happening around us. But you can raise the chance to identify possible innovations very early with this simple approach:
Good ideas are interesting. Great ideas are insane. Many of the things we’re used to today, like calling someone with a cellphone or flying in a plane across the ocean, originated in someone’s mind at a time when they got a lot of laughs about their insanity to believe in such ridiculous things.
When you feel like laughing at an idea you just hear about, don’t put it in the list above. Find out about it immediately!
For most people this is the turning point. Here you’re going to decide whether you start to accept the new, or if you’re going to fight it (see below).
If you are aware of your anger forming (which leads to hate, which in turn leads to suffering; thank you, Yoda), use this awareness to make a wise decision for the next steps.
If you’re actively fighting an innovation, you better have really good reasons. You cannot stop progress. With a lot of energy (that means: half a nation measured in people, or half a world measured in governments), you might be able to delay it. But someone, somewhere will always be curious enough to try out what you’d like to avert.
Keep in mind that innovations are neither good nor bad. It always depends on how people deal with it. Better focus on how to live with the changes. Or invent something even better that satisfies the advocates and you. But never waste your time to fight a war you cannot win.
It should be quite obvious if you reach this state. Believe me, it’s not that obvious. Some people never accept their defeat, just because they don’t realize it.
With the help of this list, you should be well prepared to not reach this state.
For innovators this list also holds a valuable truth: keep up!
As Ghandi said:
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
If you don’t change, the world around you still changes. Nothing will stay forever.
After all, that’s what makes life interesting.