BLUF
Creativity and divergence are not enough to initiate innovation—people's behaviour needs to change, and they also need to trust their colleagues.Summary
Innovators who have changed the world with their inventions exhibit high motivation, non-conformity and are comfortable with ambiguity.
'Riding the Monster: Five ways to innovate inside bureaucracies' by Eric Haseltine PhD, Chris Gilbert MD PhD argues that these traits are insufficient. The reason is that innovation requires people to change deeply ingrained behaviours and foster loose, informal social networks. In Gilbert's book, each of the five innovators studied motivated people to change their behaviour by building informal relationships. This allowed people who would generally resist change to relax, form friendships, and accept change.
In these settings, people don't fear embarrassment at advancing new ideas or trying novel approaches. On the contrary, they are prepared to risk the change if they have established trust. Thus, the psychology of innovation is summed up by what Gilbert calls the innovation equation:
Innovation +(Talent+Relationships)/Formality
References
OCT 2020 Forbes 14 Masterful Ways To Foster Curious And Innovative Teams
JAN 2021 Fast Company 6 habits of the most innovative people
MAR 2021 The Future Shapers The Innovation Leader: Utilizing Team Roles to Build High-Performance Teams
JUL 2021 Lifehack 6 Ways to Be a Successful Risk Taker and Take More Chances
