Thought Piece: Why 90% of innovation die in meetings

Hi there,

I learned about innovation failure the hard way. When market changes hit our industry, rate hikes and economic reset demolished our sector. Within months, most companies had to let go of over 75% of their teams, and many failed entirely. We faced a budget hole bigger than any annual profit we'd ever achieved.

But we survived by doubling down on innovation cycles, not abandoning them. A year later, we had a 50% revenue increase and 1,000% profit increase compared to the prior year. The difference? We'd learned that innovation is unlocked by culture, culture is unlocked by doing, and doing is unlocked by effective communication.

After helping over 100 startups reach reality and working with dozens of large companies on digital innovation, I've seen the same pattern repeatedly: great ideas die not from lack of merit, but from poor communication in meetings.

The hidden psychology behind innovation resistance

The main barrier to innovation isn't technology or resources. It's people. Most of us like things as they already are, not because they're brilliant or good for us, but because learning and change make us uncomfortable.

Change that disrupts your team's daily rhythm comes with an invisible cost. Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey describe this in Harvard Business Review as an immunity to change. It's a hidden conflict that plays out even when someone appears cooperative. They contribute in meetings, maybe even give the new process a try. But underneath, there's fear. Fear of appearing less competent, less essential, or unprofessional.

People often believe they're on board. They genuinely want the benefits. But another commitment is at play underneath, one they might not even realize. It's a need to stay in control, save face, or hold on to the role that gave them credibility. Unless those competing loyalties surface, change will stall, no matter how compelling the vision.

The race car vs freight train problem

Someone explained organizational dynamics to me perfectly: A startup is like an F1 race car. Fast, agile, high risk, high adrenaline. One person has pivotal influence on performance. A large company is more like a freight train. Slow, steady, risk-averse, but with plenty of momentum. One person has limited influence on performance, even in the driver's seat.

Picture a race car driver asked to operate a huge, 100-car train steadily rolling through the countryside. They'd probably figure out how to drive it and might have great suggestions for improvement. But they'd find so many blockers (complexity, processes, politics) that they'd face a simple choice: die of boredom or quit.

Demanding a big company to "be like Uber" is about as realistic as commanding your dog to speak French.

But here's what I've learned: The freight train crew can complete circuits in a race car if they take it slow at first, learn from earlier laps, and increase speed over time. With encouragement and celebration, they'll progress and slowly become more like race car drivers with each circuit.

The 5 qualities that matter

When building innovation teams, you want to work with people who have the highest intelligence, energy, integrity, motivation and drive for excellence you can find. They should have intrinsic motivation to charge ahead, grow personally, and improve their work environment. Negative attitudes or poor performance can bring down the entire team.

The more high-performing individuals you have, the fewer controls you need. Bring in high-performing talent and let them perform. As Reed Hastings said, talent density brings freedom.

There's an old saying: "A-players hire A-players, B-players hire C-players." This approach leads to high-quality output and can mean less work in the long run because of increased expertise.

Communication that actually works

Without getting people excited and defending the initiative, no transformation or innovation effort can succeed. You need to communicate your effort first to get buy-in and permission, then to let success create wider impact.

As you work to secure the necessary budget, approval, and capacity to pursue innovation, you'll hit numerous blockers. Cultural and psychological factors create significant barriers. Your team may not be interested. Some leaders might fail to see the value.

The only way through those walls of resistance and disinterest is to make people curious and excited. The answer is effective communication.

The three-layer framework:

• State the objective but point to purpose and values, not innovation itself. Think beyond just innovation for its own sake. Use external pressures to facilitate faster movement and more innovative solutions. Present desired benefits as more than just "innovating." Whether it's more freedom, success, happiness, or direct tangible results for your team's loved ones.

• State the threat that's unique to your organization or team. A strong and credible narrative around external threats or challenges works best. Don't make up ghost stories. It's most effective if the threat is real because it drives urgency and motivates change.

• State the reward by painting a vision of the future where your activity has already made a difference. Team hurdles are solved, resistance to change is overcome, customers are happy, money is flowing, the best tech is continuously implemented, and you outcompete with benefits to everyone involved. Show what the team is moving toward rather than what they're leaving behind.

Start your pitches with "Imagine if..." or "What if..." These phrases open doors to possibilities, making people see what you've envisioned.

Want the complete playbook? I spent over a year refining The LEAP Guide for its 4th edition, with incredible insights from Professor Linda A. Hill at Harvard Business School, and we baked in lessons from 300+ companies already using LEAP. The coolest part is the framework now gets smarter each time you use it, literally improving your innovation process. Grab the 4th edition with completely free platform access.

The power of strategic celebration

At TPC, the team has a rule to throw two parties every week, making work fun and collaborative. JPMorgan celebrates team efforts in many ways, including gifts that aren't tied to performance. Lufthansa holds award ceremonies to celebrate their team's innovative efforts.

Celebrating and rewarding efforts is vital, especially since innovation often comes with risk of failure. The key is to persist.

Creating a workplace where people enjoy their time can significantly boost an organization, but it's especially important for innovation. It's a difficult practice with uncertain results, which makes celebration and rewards necessary for success.

The "partying" really builds comfort toward calculated risk. You could say the only real failure is avoiding small failures until the entire business hits a snag and collapses. The well-known adage says to be successful, you need to fail fast, fail forward, and learn.

Google has shut down many initiatives, including major ones. Yet they're a nearly $2 trillion company that has led countless innovations. They regularly celebrate the importance of experimentation, making it part of their organizational DNA.

The celebration doesn't have to be complicated. Simple gestures like public acknowledgment for a colleague or leader go a long way. You could also consider something as simple as unexpected gift cards.

Fighting for it

The Beastie Boys teach us an important lesson: "You gotta fight for your right to party."

Sometimes it's easier, but most of the time it's harder. Your key objective is pushing through obstacles like resistance to change, lack of buy-in from others, and budget and resource constraints. Persistence and a fearless attitude toward failure are key to success.

The goal is simple: keep going. You won't see results immediately, but they compound over time. The more your team keeps innovation cycles going, the greater the impact becomes, and you'll become a model for others.

Simply find ways to fight for it.

Even once approved, real innovation initiatives constantly risk being deprioritized. They're easy to support when times are good, but they can be the first thing cut when situations become difficult. Yet those who persist and drive their effort through challenging markets are the ones who flourish on the other side.

Your next steps

Don't wait for the perfect moment. Start building your communication framework now:

• Audit your current meetings. How many energize people versus drain them?

• Identify your high-performers. Who shows intelligence, energy, integrity, intrinsic motivation, and drive for excellence?

• Plan your celebration strategy. What will you recognize this week?

• Craft your vision. What's your "Imagine if..." story?

The organizations that thrive in the next decade will be those that master the human side of innovation. Can you afford to keep killing innovation in meetings? Or is it time to fight for your right to make it come alive?

Innovation is less an act of intellect than an act of will. Want to share your innovation challenges? I'd love to hear from you.

Much Love,
Matt

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