Do you have a team member that’s willing to speak up and take things down a notch when enthusiasm for new ideas is running high?
We’re not talking about the idea-killer here but the practical person that gives dreams foundations and prevents potentially disastrous mistakes.
Tom Kelley of Ideo calls the devil’s advocate a naysayer. In a Fast Company article, adapted from the book “The Ten Faces of Innovation,” Kelley writes that the devil’s advocate is an innovation-killer, a person that doesn’t take responsibility for criticising ideas (“the devil made me do it”) but instead plays a kind of role, one that is housed as the practical protector but in reality halts innovation in its tracks, and pushes people to think negatively rather than optimistically.
Yet the devil’s advocate can be the person that contributes to improvements of ideas rather than damning them altogether. They can point out potential problems that, once addressed, can help new ideas to truly succeed. And in a culture of open communication and contribution, the devil’s advocate can take personal responsibility for pointing out such hazards and prevent dangerous groupthink.
Ori Hadomi, CEO of Mazor Robotics, tells Adam Bryant of The New York Times that his company has an appointed devil’s advocate. This executive is constructively critical and keeps everyone humble. While positivity is important for motivation, Hadomi says, it’s not useful for planning and implementation, for realistic goals and successful strategies.
Rob May of Business Pundit.com believes appointing a devil’s advocate is a great idea because it can help you avoid conformity of opinion based on groupthink. One form of groupthink is the Abilene Paradox. The Abilene Paradox was named by management expert Jerry B. Harvey, according to Wikipedia. Harvey described a family that ended up taking a trip to Abilene that no one really wanted to because they each believed that others did want to make the trip. No one wanted to “rock the boat.” May points out that if employees are afraid to speak up, costly mistakes can occur.
In an Idaho Business Review article, business consultant Eric Gunlach writes that we consistently overestimate our ability to make sound decisions and that a devil’s advocate can provide us with the challenges that ramp up our thinking and lead to improvement of ideas.
While we naturally gravitate towards people that share our way of thinking, Gunlach reports that a McKinsey study found that it is diversity of perspectives that contributes to success. Businesses that have high degrees of diversity among their boards of directors see much higher returns than those that don’t. While conformity can help a team work more efficiently, diversity is what will make your product or service most applicable to different consumers.
Hadomi points out that your business culture is what helps people to feel that they can speak up. At Mazor Robotics, direct communication is key: no one is afraid of giving or receiving feedback. Hadomi tells Bryant: “I believe that it is much more dangerous not to report mistakes than it is to make mistakes in the first place. It’s natural that we make mistakes. The question is, what do we do with these mistakes as an organization? Do we repeat the mistakes? Do we learn from them? Do we investigate them and implement a solution?”
Kelley believes that innovation comes from different perspectives and more roles than that of the devil’s advocate. He believes that success comes from having your sights set ahead but your feet on the ground: ideas, action and implementation.
Ideo has created innovation roles, personas that they encourage people to take on, in order to implement innovation successfully. These roles are: anthropologist, experimenter, cross-pollinator, hurdler, collaborator, director, experience architect, set designer, caregiver and storyteller.
The anthropologist studies human behaviour. At Ideo, taking on this role means that an employee tries to view the product or service as the consumer does. The experimenter tests out new ideas in real time; the cross-pollinator tests out ideas in other cultures and industries. The hurdler at Ideo overcomes obstacles to implementation, either within a company or in the marketplace. Collaborators are in charge of networking, bringing different people together to improve implementation. Directors gather the right people together and motivate them. Experience architects thinks about how a product or service can fill unrecognised needs in consumers while the set designer creates the right environment for employees to work on and produce the idea or service. Caregivers fight for consumer needs and wants while the storyteller inspires vision among consumers, stakeholders and employees.
So who puts the foundation beneath innovation at your business?
The writer is an executive coach and HR training and evelopment expert.
We’re not talking about the idea-killer here but the practical person that gives dreams foundations and prevents potentially disastrous mistakes.
Tom Kelley of Ideo calls the devil’s advocate a naysayer. In a Fast Company article, adapted from the book “The Ten Faces of Innovation,” Kelley writes that the devil’s advocate is an innovation-killer, a person that doesn’t take responsibility for criticising ideas (“the devil made me do it”) but instead plays a kind of role, one that is housed as the practical protector but in reality halts innovation in its tracks, and pushes people to think negatively rather than optimistically.
Yet the devil’s advocate can be the person that contributes to improvements of ideas rather than damning them altogether. They can point out potential problems that, once addressed, can help new ideas to truly succeed. And in a culture of open communication and contribution, the devil’s advocate can take personal responsibility for pointing out such hazards and prevent dangerous groupthink.
Ori Hadomi, CEO of Mazor Robotics, tells Adam Bryant of The New York Times that his company has an appointed devil’s advocate. This executive is constructively critical and keeps everyone humble. While positivity is important for motivation, Hadomi says, it’s not useful for planning and implementation, for realistic goals and successful strategies.
Rob May of Business Pundit.com believes appointing a devil’s advocate is a great idea because it can help you avoid conformity of opinion based on groupthink. One form of groupthink is the Abilene Paradox. The Abilene Paradox was named by management expert Jerry B. Harvey, according to Wikipedia. Harvey described a family that ended up taking a trip to Abilene that no one really wanted to because they each believed that others did want to make the trip. No one wanted to “rock the boat.” May points out that if employees are afraid to speak up, costly mistakes can occur.
In an Idaho Business Review article, business consultant Eric Gunlach writes that we consistently overestimate our ability to make sound decisions and that a devil’s advocate can provide us with the challenges that ramp up our thinking and lead to improvement of ideas.
While we naturally gravitate towards people that share our way of thinking, Gunlach reports that a McKinsey study found that it is diversity of perspectives that contributes to success. Businesses that have high degrees of diversity among their boards of directors see much higher returns than those that don’t. While conformity can help a team work more efficiently, diversity is what will make your product or service most applicable to different consumers.
Hadomi points out that your business culture is what helps people to feel that they can speak up. At Mazor Robotics, direct communication is key: no one is afraid of giving or receiving feedback. Hadomi tells Bryant: “I believe that it is much more dangerous not to report mistakes than it is to make mistakes in the first place. It’s natural that we make mistakes. The question is, what do we do with these mistakes as an organization? Do we repeat the mistakes? Do we learn from them? Do we investigate them and implement a solution?”
Kelley believes that innovation comes from different perspectives and more roles than that of the devil’s advocate. He believes that success comes from having your sights set ahead but your feet on the ground: ideas, action and implementation.
Ideo has created innovation roles, personas that they encourage people to take on, in order to implement innovation successfully. These roles are: anthropologist, experimenter, cross-pollinator, hurdler, collaborator, director, experience architect, set designer, caregiver and storyteller.
The anthropologist studies human behaviour. At Ideo, taking on this role means that an employee tries to view the product or service as the consumer does. The experimenter tests out new ideas in real time; the cross-pollinator tests out ideas in other cultures and industries. The hurdler at Ideo overcomes obstacles to implementation, either within a company or in the marketplace. Collaborators are in charge of networking, bringing different people together to improve implementation. Directors gather the right people together and motivate them. Experience architects thinks about how a product or service can fill unrecognised needs in consumers while the set designer creates the right environment for employees to work on and produce the idea or service. Caregivers fight for consumer needs and wants while the storyteller inspires vision among consumers, stakeholders and employees.
So who puts the foundation beneath innovation at your business?
The writer is an executive coach and HR training and evelopment expert.
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