That will never work.

"That will never work!"

Are sentiments like these torpedoing innovation and growth where you live?

Because it's purpose is to create a customer, the business has two - and only- two functions, marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results, all the rest are costs.

- Peter Drucker

If innovation is a primary function of a business, what happens to your ability to innovate when new initiatives get torpedoed with...

· That will never work. · It can't be done.

· That's not how we do things. · If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

If innovation is vital, how do we drive out the naysayers? Or, if we got rid of all our naysayers, who would be left to do the work?

It may help if we understand that negative attitudes are inherent to the human condition. For parents to effectively discipline their children, repeated use the word "NO" is essential. The result is that often a child's first words are not "Mommy" or "Daddy", but "NO". Then there's those nursery rhymes. Jack and Jill went to fetch some water and what happened to poor Jack? Little Miss Muffit introduced children to arachnophobia and Humpty Dumpty went to pieces. With all that negative exposure in those formative wonder years, it's a wonder that anyone could develop a desire for risk taking required for innovation. If our childhood conditioning wasn't enough, we have our daily news broadcasts and newspapers as obstacles to developing positive outlooks.

Is it possible to drive innovation in the face of negativity? How do managers overcome negative attitudes inherent in any organization? Why are some organizations so much more innovative than others? Is there hope for the laggards?

"The greatest discovery of our generation is that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives."

- William James, the father of American Psychology

Attitudes can be changed, but it must be a conscious attempt. Unless you make that attempt, because of that negative influence during the early stages of your life, your basic thought processes tend to be in terms of the negative - of what you can't do as opposed to what you CAN do.

"Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right."

- Henry Ford

When your naysayers utter those dreaded words: That will never work, are they right? What happens to innovation?

Are your managers committed and skilled in driving positive change?
Do they fight fire with fire? Or, are they skilled at developing and communicating win-win scenarios?
Do your managers ever reward failures? (Or, are you thinking "That will never work")

Tom Lemanski is the president of Vista Development of Kildeer, IL. He is a facilitator of strategic business planning and the organizational and personal development of positive leadership behaviors in executives, managers and sales professionals.

Email your comments or feedback