Tim Harford, Financial Times journalist, Radio 4 presenter and author of the bestselling Undercover Economist delivered the opening keynote on “Innovation and the Art of Good Mistakes” at CompTIA’s EMEA Member & Partner Conference this year.
Harford started by explaining marginal improvements – small changes that can make a difference to a business. Here, he praised the IT industry for its successful approach. But he argued that this approach can be too easy, and to make real leaps forward it is necessary to take bigger risks – long shots that will often fail, but when they do work make for such big advancements that they can change the world.
He gave the example of a Royal Air Force request for a plane design that could operate with one pilot and gunner – an idea scorned by politicians including Winston Churchill. After several unworkable proposals, an idea arrived six-months-late. The Royal Air Force decided to build it as “a most interesting experiment”. The result was the Spitfire; a celebrated plane critical to the Allied war effort.
Taking such long shots is less appealing to business than the marginal improvement approach, Harford said. Most will fail, and failure is hard to sell to your boss. But long shots lead to the innovations that change companies and governments. A few successful and well-chosen long shots can pay for thousands of failures.
He said we pay lip service to failure. Trial-and-error is always praised. But in reality we find it difficult to fail in a constructive way. He identified three organisational barriers here:
Firstly, organisational structures breed conformity: It’s very hard for people to step out of line and suggest something that rocks the boat. But disagreeing with the consensus helps open up ideas. Even if your idea is wrong, breaking the cycle of conformity opens up the conversation for others to feel they can challenge the status quo. If your idea is terrible, it might give the shy genius in the corner the confidence to put something brilliant forward.
Secondly, a lack of feedback loops is a problem: Successful organisations allow the end-user to give honest feedback, and if it’s not working, be prepared to change it.
Thirdly, people unwilling to cut their losses are also a problem: If you make a mistake, make peace with it and move on. There is nothing wrong with constructive failure.
The IT industry has changed the world time and again thanks to risk-takers. As Harford said, we mustn’t stop marginal improvements, but we shouldn’t be afraid of taking calculated risks, knowing some will fail. We should respect those who offer fresh ideas even though many simply won’t work out. And we should respect those who try and fail, because they are part of a system of innovators that occasionally produces the Spitfire or Google or the iPad.
