Thereâs a trail of companies behind usâfrom Polaroid to Blockbuster to Blackberry (and countless others my kids have never heard of)âthat ultimately failed because they didn’t innovate.
Once they found their formula for success, they took their eyes off the ball. And when they werenât looking, crafty new business models emerged, taking risks that paid off.
Companies need to be innovating today more than everâin ways big and small. And innovation requires risk-taking, which means that individual people need to be taking the risks. But taking risks is scary. What if you get it wrong?
We all know of someone who took a big chance and had a big fall. So how do you develop the comfort and confidence to take risks without worrying youâre putting your job on the line?
The good news is there are ways you can manage and mitigate risk, giving your great ideas their moment in the sun without leaving you feeling that unemployment is imminent.
1. Begin with context
All risks are not created equal. While there are many variations out there, one of the most critical is the informed versus the uninformed risk. As youâve likely guessed, itâs the informed variety you should strive to take.
What makes a risk informed is effectively doing a bit of discovery. When you take the time to really understand the contextâto define an opportunity at handâthen your risk suddenly becomes a solution to a problem rather than a shiny object.
Years ago, my brother had aspirations of starting his own business. But talk about a risky move!
So, he took a job with a recruiting firm that placed technical talent within organizations. It turns out technical talent and jobs come in many shapes and sizes. And my brother quickly realized there was an opportunity to specialize in a very specific brand of technical. He pitched his boss, his boss wasnât interested, so my brother went out on his own.
Ten years later, my brother is the go-to guy when it comes to the particular niche he chose.
By the time he started his business, it no longer felt like a riskâa thing he wanted to do. It became a solution to a problemâa thing he felt compelled to do. And the thing that moved him into the zone of confidence was context.
Maybe you lead a marketing team and thereâs a new campaign youâve been wanting to launch. Or you run a retail store and you have an inventive merchandising vision. Or you manage the front desk at a medical practice, and youâd like to reinvent the way you connect with new patients.
Before you fall in love with your idea, start with context. Whatâs happening around you? Whatâs working well, whatâs feeling clunky or missing? What do your customers or patients need that they arenât presently getting?
Answer those questions before you begin envisioning the risk youâd like to take. This will force you to keep things practical and purposefulârisk-mitigating factors.
2. Think big and shrink it
âGo big or go homeâ is one of those ideas that sounds great at the gym or on a bumper sticker. But personally, Iâm not a fan.
Sometimes “think big but start small” is the way to go.
I was still working for a big company back when the open-concept workspace became a trend. Suddenly all the big research firms were pitching the open office as a means of driving collaboration, creativity, and productivity.
Big companies ate the idea up, and suddenly cubicles and offices were tumbling down, and you couldnât take two steps without banging a knee on a space-age sofa or a foosball table.
It felt like it happened overnight. The change was significant, the financial investments unthinkable.
Turns out, it totally backfired. Suddenly people had nowhere to go and think or have a private conversation or get their heads-down work done. Everything became noiseâa distraction. Productivity and collaboration were ultimately reduced and people started working from home more often.
These complete workspace overhauls were gargantuan efforts. But by the time their impact became clear, it was too late to turn back.
Hindsight is 20/20, but if those companies had started by transforming just a single floor and had people work in it for a few months, theyâd have learned early about the negative impacts, and could have reworked their plans.
They went too big too fast. And this is a lesson in thinking big but starting small.
So, whatâs your big idea, and how can you shrink it down to a tiny test?
Can you mock up that marketing campaign and test it with just a handful of loyal customers to get their feedback?
Shrinking your idea down to a test minimizes the risk. You havenât climbed too high, so the fallâif you have oneâis unlikely to hurt. You just get up and try again. And if your idea is a win, then you build it out from there.
Suddenly risk doesnât seem so terrifying, right?
3. Have a learning plan
The real problem with the open-office debacle is that a decision got made, and success was the only option. There was no backup plan, no strategy to address the question of âwhat if this new design doesnât deliver the results we need?â
The real issue wasnât the idea, it was the lack of a plan that would unlock learning, pivoting, and reimagining along the way.
If youâre envisioning that new marketing campaign, you could develop the campaign, send it to your entire database, and cross your fingers.
Or you can determine which variables youâre going to test (email subject lines? Discounts and offers?), which customer segments youâre going to engage, and what metrics youâll look at to provide insight.
In combination with your think-big-start-small strategy, your tiny test gives you feedback you can leverage as you go. Which subject line performed best with your test audience? Thatâs the one you send to the masses. And what is it about the subject lines that didnât perform well that might inform your future campaigns?
When you take this approach youâre never failing. Youâre either winning or youâre learning. And both of these outcomes are of service to you and your company.
4. Spread the word
Taking that first riskâeven small and plannedâmay still feel scary. But if youâre intentional, youâll learn something essential that will move you forward.
Then you just need to do it again. And you need those around you doing the same until risk-taking becomes a habit ingrained in how you do business.
Telling stories is one of the greatest ways to begin to build a habit. Instead of preaching about the value of risk-taking, share your own story of what you did, what you learned, and what impact it delivered to the team or organization.
Stories make things real and memorable. They also set you up as the hero of your story. Position yourself as the ambassador of risk-taking and watch your star soar.