How chasing after nothing accelerates innovation | by Phil Watson | X, the moonshot factory

Innovation is an inherently uncertain process. But leaders responsible for ‘delivering innovation’ in an organization need to measure progress in some way and prove that they’re spending resources wisely. So, it’s tempting to manage your team by setting clear targets for success. But what if this is wrong, even counter-productive? I’ve been considering this recently since reading Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned: The Myth of the Objective by Kenneth Stanley and Joel Lehman. Stanley summarized the book’s central argument in a talk available on YouTube: I lead Rapid Evaluation at X, a team responsible for uncovering how radical new technologies can be used to solve huge problems. Given the world faces a nearly inexhaustible list of problems and an endless array of new and exciting technical breakthroughs that could provide possible solutions, it seems entirely logical to analyze, prioritize, and define specific objectives to guide my team on a clear path to X’s next moonshot. Join Medium

Innovation is an inherently uncertain process. But leaders responsible for ‘delivering innovation’ in an organization need to measure progress in some way and prove that they’re spending resources wisely. So, it’s tempting to manage your team by setting clear targets for success. But what if this is wrong, even counter-productive? I’ve been considering this recently since reading Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned: The Myth of the Objective by Kenneth Stanley and Joel Lehman. Stanley summarized the book’s central argument in a talk available on YouTube: I lead Rapid Evaluation at X, a team respon