And this explains why innovation can be so difficult for many of our colleagues.
The sheep gather in a flock. I saw this flock this morning and noticed how close each sheep stays together.
This makes them feel more secure.
If there is danger or a predator around, being in a large group means not only can you see the danger sooner, but you don't need to face it alone, which increases your chances of surviving.
This also means that any sheep straying too far from the group, doing something unexpected or different, potentially put themselves in danger.
The same was true for our ancestors, when ancient humans were still potential prey for large predators.
Thanks to evolution, we have many Prejudices and heuristics programmed into our brains to try to keep us safe.
Two of the most common are:
- In-group bias: Our preference to be surrounded by people like us and conform to the group (our flock)
- Status quo bias: The preference to keep things as they are, even if a change might improve things
Unfortunately, these biases (and many others like them) that evolved over hundreds of millions of years to keep us safe also make it much more difficult to innovate.
Even when we as individuals want to push our company and colleagues to try new things or do things differently, their desire for the status quo often means we move forward.
It results corporate antibodies who want things to stay as they are, which means letting innovation efforts die even if there are passionate people behind them.
So how can we overcome these barriers to innovation?
- We must accept that we are not sheep: the dangers that haunted our evolutionary ancestors are no longer there. We now have the opportunity to try new things without risking death
- Understanding our biases: By understanding what biases cause others to think like sheep, we can better understand how to address them and better overcome them ourselves.
- Show that new grass plots are safe: Quickly experiment with low-risk innovation processes to show the rest of the herd that innovation is not as dangerous as they think.
- Don't scare the existing herd: If there are other colleagues who aren't as adventurous or innovative as you, that's okay. Don't become aggressive or confrontational towards them, otherwise they may become even more afraid of change and work even harder to prevent innovation however they can.
Creativity and Innovation Expert: I help individuals and businesses develop their creativity and innovation capabilities, so you can develop the next revolutionary idea that customers love. Editor-in-Chief of Ideatovalue.com and Founder/CEO of Improvides Innovation Consulting. Coach / Speaker / Author / TEDx Speaker / Voted as one of the most influential innovation bloggers.