This blog isn’t ecumenical in nature. Still, it is about answering big questions and seeking truth and understanding.

At Solve Next we preach “achieve change by formulating and testing hypotheses, drawing conclusions, and doing that again. And again. And again”.

We frequently hear how big established businesses, governments, even the military need to be like startups. 

Let’s get this off my chest first - government and the military shouldn’t be like startups—EVER, because they aren’t businesses, and it’s utterly asinine to suggest that they are.

I admit I have almost as big a problem with the platitude “Culture of Innovation” as I do with “Failing Fast.”

It’s a collision of ambiguities. Ask 20 people what they think organizational culture is, and you’ll get back 20 different answers (at least). Ask them what innovation is, and you’ll end up with Justice Potter Stewart’s take on pornography—"I know it when I see it.”

There’s agreement, head nodding, and lip service given to the need for a “Culture of Innovation”—but people deeply disagree on what it actually means.

To maintain your ever fleeting competitive advantage (Check out Rita Gunther McGrath’s point of view on competitive advantage) in a hyper-disruptive-amazon-fueled world you’ll want to focus on the people who can imagine how you might use those tools in clever, practical, and original ways to deliver effective satisfaction to the jobs to be done for existing and new customers.

How often do you hear platitudes about failing fast, failing forward, celebrating failure, embracing failure, feeling free to fail?

Well I’m here to say—f*&k that.

I’m here to say failure is not good, whether it’s done fast, forward, or by high fiving each other at an end of year celebration.

If you are a Chief Innovation Officer you know the truth: People don’t like a failure. Failing is scary. Failing hurts. Failing is something to be avoided.

Why?

It all begins with an idea.Trying to innovate within your organization is one of the most courageous or foolhardy jobs you can choose to take on, because between you and the needed change are a hundred named and self-appointed Chief Don’t F*&k It Up Officers who’ve made it their mission in life to keep everything running just the way it is.

Get it wrong—you’re fired.

Steve Jobs is a poster child for our Be Bold practice, and we’ve used the oft attributed Steve Jobs quote “we’re here to make a dent in the universe”, but caveated it with our inability to find the source.

We decided to research it.