How many of us have, or at least heard, the forgoing phrase? When was the last time you heard it uttered? Was it in a public place? An online forum? Maybe somewhere in the Twitter-verse? Or maybe, just maybe, it leaked from your own gob like butter from a warm biscuit at the announcement of some new innovation at our workplace?
That people fundamentally prefer inertia and tradition over movement and innovation is a given. Niccolo Machiavelli described the situation in The Prince over five centuries ago, “The innovator has as enemies, all those who have done well in the old order.” We believe that any innovation that threatens the norm is a full frontal assault on the common good, and to do so, is to invite responses that tend toward the Biblical. Remember how the powers-that-be in 1st century Jerusalem dealt with a certain Nazarene’s brand of innovation?
Innovation begins where old ways end. The Luddites failed. The machines replaced them and they, and their families, suffered for their unwillingness to change. Change is inevitable. Change is the juice of innovation—the perception by someone that a thing, a process or an institution can be made more efficient, more effective, and just plain better. Those things that need to be left alone are those that already represent a zenith of something. Like a Rembrandt or Pez dispenser. Moving on…
So what’s an innovator to do when there’s so much against them? Easy-peasy. Just know all the current stakeholders and understand what they’ll gain, and more importantly, what they’ll lose by embracing your innovation. Remember, they are not your friends until you are successful. So go and make the next big thing; the next Ipod, the next Nike, the next WalMart, or maybe just a better mouse trap. Preferably one that vaporizes them. That way, I won’t have to bag or bury the buggers.
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