Chronic innovation critics are people and processes that kill new ideas before they can thrive. They prevent you from trying new things and learning from failures. The criticisms may result in your organization getting stuck in its current state. Innovation critics love to point out why an idea will fail. These people are often the ones who have been with the organization the longest and are the most resistant to change. All organizations need people to push back and challenge ideas because it improves them. The key is to combat them with specific, objective, and actionable criticism.

Four Reasons Innovation Critics Kill Ideas

1.     The Ego Response

“Oh, I already thought of that a long time ago.”

“Somebody else has already come up with that idea.”

Your idea makes these people feel threatened, but you can strategically turn things around. Appeal to their ego by infusing any feedback they give into your idea pitch to gain their support.

2.     The Fatigued Response

“You’ll never get approval.”

“We tried that before.”

Innovation critics are often burned out from having their innovations rejected. The key is to find a way to demonstrate that your idea will not play out their worst fears about repeating past experiences.

3.     The No-Risk Response

“Not enough return on investment.”

“We can’t afford that.”

Some innovation critics fear risk as it can negatively affect their careers. Get them comfortable with risk by breaking your innovation into smaller steps.

4.     The Comfort Response

“We’ve always done it this way.”

“Our customer likes it this way.”

These critics may have outdated thinking about what success looks like. It’s up to you to convince them that what makes up success may well have changed.

The Intent of The Criticism

With each of the four responses to your ideas, these critics can be constructive or destructive. These will be dependent on their intent and how feedback is received. Identify which of these responses you typically get, and then try to understand their motivations. If people tend to dismiss your ideas, try to explain your vision in more detail or share data supporting your case.

To overcome chronic innovation critics, encourage a diversity of perspectives, make it safe to fail, and reward innovation. This action will help to create a culture of innovation within an organization.

To know more about chronic innovation critics,  listen to this week's show: Pushing Back on The Chronic Innovation Critics.