Innovation on Demand

I know this is going to bring up painful memories, but it will soon be over.  Imagine that you're at a meeting where you are discussing some project related issues and potential solutions.  Suddenly your manager says to you, "So, now that you've heard the problems, what's your solution?"  Your mind goes blank as you try to think of a solution to a problem that you've never really analyzed before.  You start breathing quickly and shallowly as your heart hammers away at 200 beats per minute and the adrenaline flowing through your system makes you acutely aware of everyone looking at you.  Looking at you with both sympathy and glee, thankful that they were not chosen. 

I am confident that 99% of you have been through this.  The 1% that hasn't been through this  just graduated and hasn't had the opportunity that the rest of us have had.

It is widely thought amongst management types that geeks can innovate on demand.  (Boy is that statement going to get me a lot of email.)  This is, however, fundamentally wrong.  Indeed, it is wrong for most people, not just geeks.  In order to proved a good answer to a question the person needs to understand the context in which the question is being made or the issues behind the problem.  By tossing out that one liner about coming up  with a solution with no opportunity to prepare is quite unfair.  The individual in question probably does not have a suitable answer (if they did the answer was so obvious that other people should have realized it) and the added pressure of having to answer this in a more formal meeting environment is going to make the person less likely to come up with a good solution and more likely to come up with a safe solution.

This is not to say that safe solutions cannot also be good solutions, but the odds are that the reason the manager is asking this question is because none of the safe solutions seem particularly attractive.  Managers are traditionally risk adverse which means that they would have looked at the safe solutions already.  Sometimes, however, a Eureka moment arrives and an answer comes to your mind, fully formed and breathing on its own.  The rush, the thrill of coming up with an answer is fantastic.  BUT, don't expect it.  Expecting it is almost guaranteed to make sure that it is not going to happen.

So, managers, if need to get an answer to a problem in a meeting, don't single out anyone as that added pressure is probably going to do the exact opposite of what you expect.