The Challenges to Innovation and the CATS Nine Lives of Innovation

Historical Assumptions and Barriers to Innovation

Innovation and change are frequently met with skepticism based on historical assumptions that later proved to be incorrect. These assumptions act as barriers to progress:

• H.M. Warner (Warner Brothers, $1927$): "Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?"
• Lord Kelvin (President of the Royal Society in Great Britain, $1895$): "Heavier than air flying machines are impossible."
• Albert Einstein’s Teacher ($1895$): "No matter what he does, he will never amount to anything"
• Charles H. Duell (Commissioner, US Office of Patents, $1899$): ‐‐Everything that can be invented has been invented.‐‐
• Decca Recording Company ($1926$, rejecting the Beatles): ‐‐We don’t like their sound and guitar music is on the way out.‐‐
• Thomas Watson Jr. (Chairman of IBM, $1943$): ‐‐I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.‐‐

The Four Challenges to Innovation (Lundin, $2009$)

Stephen Lundin identifies four primary challenges that must be addressed to foster innovation. If these are not overcome, they serve as significant barriers.

1. Doubts, Fears, and Distractions

• Nervousness: Innovation involves change, which naturally causes anxiety.
• Fear of Change: Listening to doubters can instill a fear of the outcomes resulting from innovative processes.
• Internal Voices: The distraction or doubt often comes from within a person’s own head.
• Example: Frederick Smith and FedEx: Smith proposed an overnight parcel service integrating aircraft and trucking. His university professor gave the proposal a ‐‐C‐‐ grade. Despite this, he launched the FedEx Corporation.

2. Being Normal

• Hard-wiring: Humans are naturally inclined toward routines and the safety of ‐‐normality.‐‐
• Conformity: Most people prefer to live ‐‐inside the box‐‐ and follow established rules.
• The Enemy of Creativity: Innovation requires breaking routines and thinking ‐‐outside the box.‐‐
• The Reverse Gear Analogy: A reverse gear in a car costs approximately $500$ and is only used $0.001\%$ of the time. While this seems expensive for such low usage, a car is useless without the ability to reverse when needed. Lundin states: ‐‐…reverse gear is to the car as creativity is to normal. When you need it, you need it badly.‐‐

3. Failure

• Learning Opportunity: Failure is a critical component of learning. Activities like roller skating or playing a musical instrument are rarely perfected instantly; they require ‐‐failing well.‐‐
• Positive Perception: Innovators must view failure as a positive part of the process and persevere.
• Example: Thomas Edison: Edison famously attempted $10,000$ different items before successfully creating a filament that could light a globe.

4. Leadership and Energy

• Organizational Sensitivity: Employees are often sensitive and feel vulnerable when asked to innovate. Some innovators work independently and may not interact well with others.
• Directing vs. Persuading: Poor leaders focus on directing and controlling staff. Good leaders persuade staff to accept novelty and inspire them to participate in the innovation process.
• Safe Havens: Ineffective leaders fail to create a safe environment for innovation, often telling employees exactly what to do and using tools to enforce obedience.
• Energy Consumption vs. Release: Innovation dies in toxic energy environments but thrives in natural energy. Effective leaders focus on releasing employee energy by respecting freedom, eliminating barriers, supporting divergence, and protecting vulnerable ideas while putting their own egos aside.

CATS: The Nine Lives of Innovation

Lundin defines ‐‐CATS‐‐ as any human seeking to be more innovative. The ‐‐Nine Lives‐‐ are building blocks used to overcome the four challenges by shifting focus from abstract strategy to personal practice.

Life 1: CATS Create an Innovation Friendly Environment

• Removing Clutter: This includes external noise (criticism, judgment), internal thoughts (self-doubt, fears), and physical busyness or anxiety.
• Building a Greenhouse: Creating a playful, intentional workspace.
• Example: One company encouraged cross-boundary conversation by removing all names and numbers from office doors to force employees to speak to one another.
• Vision: A powerful vision can pull a person through clutter and overwhelm fear.
• Spaciousness: Setting aside time and quiet places (free from modern constraints like ringing phones) to dream.

Life 2: CATS are Prepared for Innovation

• Preparation: Innovation favors the prepared mind. Even if the opportunity is unknown, keeping a state of growth increases the odds of success.
• Breakthrough Toolbox: To respond quickly, innovators should carry:
  • Skills (Technical, soft, and lateral thinking).
  • Knowledge and experiences.
  • Readily available information.
  • Motivation and leadership qualities.

Life 3: CATS Know that Innovation is Not Normal

• Escaping Rountines: Breaking the grip of habits and paradigms.
• The Fuzzy Zone: Innovation occurs in the spaces between disciplines, work groups, and systems.
• Formulaic Innovation: Traditional passport/license photo booth + Arcade video game = Photo sticker booth.
• Personal Venture: It involves crossing boundaries.
• Example: Mick the Juggler: He applied hand-crossing moves from juggling to the Yoyo‐‐a technique not previously used in that domain‐‐to win a championship.
• Lateral Thinking Puzzles:
  • The Surgeon: A father dies in a crash; the surgeon says of the son, ‐‐I can't operate… he is my son!‐‐ (The surgeon is the mother).
  • The Neighbor: A woman calls her neighbor, says nothing, hangs up, and falls asleep. (The neighbor was snoring loudly; the call woke him up, stopping the noise).
  • The 2-Seater Car: In a storm, you see a dying old lady, a life-saving friend, and a dream partner. (Give the keys to the friend to take the lady to the hospital; stay at the stop with the dream partner).

Life 4: CATS Welcome Physical Provocation

• Triggers: Using objects, actions, or events to move ideas from the subconscious to the conscious.
• Provocation Methods: Taking breaks (yoga, walking the dog), swapping jobs, or even responding to natural disasters/tragedies that force new routines.

Life 5: CATS Enjoy Social Provocation

• Interactions: Ideas spark spontaneously through human encounters, brainstorming, and volunteering.
• Diversity: Volunteering allows engagement with people from different backgrounds, sparking unusual ideas.
• Axiom: ‐‐All innovation is change or it would not be innovation.‐‐

Life 6: CATS Promote Intellectual Provocation

• Challenging Linear Thinking: Constantly exploring new territory and asking ‐‐Why not?‐‐ or considering logical impossibilities (e.g., trash picking itself up).
• Random Words: Using random stimuli to escape the ‐‐normal zone.‐‐
• Shoe Market Story: One researcher saw no market in Africa because nobody wore shoes; a second researcher saw fantastic potential because nobody owned shoes yet.

Life 7: CATS Say ‐‐How Fascinating!‐‐

• Greeting Setbacks: Instead of frustration, use the phrase ‐‐How fascinating!‐‐ to analyze what can be learned.
• Jagged Learning Curve: Improvement is rarely smooth; it is jagged with many setbacks that require persistence.

Life 8: CATS Fail Early and Fail Well

• Constructive Failure: The goal is to maximize learning by getting failures out of the way early in a project rather than at the end.
• Feedback: Seek early, rich feedback.
• Information Value: Embrace failure for its data rather than trying to eliminate it entirely.

Life 9: CAT Wranglers Understand Natural Energy

• Definition: ‐‐CAT Wranglers‐‐ are leaders who mentor and support innovators.
• Natural Energy Sources: Freedom, choice, and commitment. It cannot be demanded or coerced.
• Leadership Role: Wranglers invite and inspire energy, allowing innovators to retain their natural drive through the complexity of change.

Mapping Challenges to the Nine Lives

Lundin suggests that while the lives do not need to be used simultaneously, specific lives act as the best responses to specific challenges:

• Challenge 1: Doubts, Fears, and Distractions → Life 1 (Friendly Environment) & Life 2 (Preparedness).
• Challenge 2: Being Normal → Life 3 (Innovation is not Normal), Life 4 (Physical Provocation), Life 5 (Social Provocation), & Life 6 (Intellectual Provocation).
• Challenge 3: Failure → Life 7 (‐‐How Fascinating!‐‐) & Life 8 (Fail Early/Well).
• Challenge 4: Leadership and Energy → Life 9 (CAT Wranglers/Natural Energy).