An outsider’s view of elite and professional sport tends to assume that these environments are constantly engaged in ‘pushing the envelope’ in the relentless pursuit of better. The situation in reality is often quite different. Conventions and the pressure to conform to what others are doing exert a powerful pull. Paradoxically the resistance to exploration and barriers to innovation are often more pronounced at the highest level. Within professional sport especially coaches and practitioners are acutely aware that their position is highly coveted and job security is at a premium. These conditions are naturally not conducive to taking risks or going outside the accepted ways of doing things. All of this helps to explain the abundant examples demonstrating that opportunities remain to gain significant competitive advantages and even some easy wins.
Matt Ridley, author of How Innovation Works, made the compelling case that if we wish to be more innovative we should first seek to understand the forces at play that are working to oppose innovation. Certainly conformity and fear are two factors that hold back innovation in elite and professional sport. On a fundamental level, inertia is also a significant barrier to change. Aside from aversion to risk, there is a general reticence to break with convention and the presently accepted view of how things are done within the sport. Equally from an individual perspective there is also discomfort at the prospect of moving away from what we are familiar with.
Despite the reticence to go out on a limb and be the ‘first mover’, innovations that work (and even some that don’t) spread very quickly. As soon as one team in the league has success by doing something novel the rest quickly follow. Those with the courage to be pioneers therefore have significant first-mover advantage, assuming the innovation provides a real competitive advantage! Being first affords the opportunity to put clear water on the competition, but beyond the head start, the lead time is also invaluable in permitting the additional time to more fully understand the solution and refine its implementation.
UNDERSTANDING THE REAL QUESTION TO ANSWER…
“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses”
The quote above is often used by those in the realm of sports science and technology to assure ourselves that we know better than the consumer (in this case coaches and athletes) when it comes to what they want versus what they need. Aside from the obvious hubris, this reading of the situation is also missing the point.
What the quote does exemplify is that we must delve deeper and more fully understand what the real need is. Using the example in the quote, why would people be seeking faster horses? The answer was to more rapidly transport people and goods; that was the underlying need. Understanding the deeper need and the ultimate problem leads us to alternative solutions, such as cars rather than a variation of the existing solution of horses.
INGREDIENTS FOR INNOVATION…
If the foremost barrier to innovation is inertia then we must periodically free ourselves from the conventions of the sport and the constraints on our thinking that inevitably arise from operating within a specific context. Exploring other sports and domains beyond sport can allow us to conceive potential solutions, or at the very least bring a richer perspective to the specific challenges we face in our sport.
These two elements (solutions and perspectives from other domains) are always part of innovation. Innovation is not the same as invention - often innovation simply involves taking what is proven to work elsewhere and re-purposing it for a new context. Perspective is likewise the key that unlocks potential solutions. If everybody involved brings essentially the same mental model it is natural that this will narrow the range of conceivable solutions. Thinking of the problem in a different way and seeing the puzzle from a new angle naturally opens up a whole realm of possibilities.
More generally there are some notable traits that lend a greater propensity for innovative ideas. A major asset is the vision to see things differently, but the best proponents also bring great enthusiasm to the process of learning and exploring new ideas. Innovators are inquisitive by nature and their curiosity is not restricted to any single topic. The willingness to venture not only beyond our bubble but beyond sport in the search for answers is accordingly crucial: it is not a coincidence that the best thinkers in sport tend to frame their arguments using examples from beyond sport. John Kiely is a great example of this.
As has been described, there are some unique individuals who are a lightning rod for ideas. By stimulating the thinking of others, these exceptional few inspire ideas and innovations to the benefit of those around them. Similarly in any geographical location that is a hotbed for innovation such as Silicon Valley you will find a cluster of such individuals. This creates a reciprocal situation whereby individuals continually inspire and improve upon the ideas of each other. In essence this is what an aspiring ‘high performing’ organisation should be seeking to create, both within the staff and with the aid of well-chosen outside parties.
THE INNOVATION ENGINE…
Innovation is a continuous process rather than a single event or isolated ‘eureka!’ moment. Even the final version of an idea represents the culmination of a long series of thought experiments and ‘what if’ questions. Innovation is incremental, comprising serial attempts and ongoing trial and error. It is an iterative process, whereby we trial early versions, move forward with what shows promise, and tinker with refinements, before eventually arriving at a solution we are happy to put in front of coaches and athletes.
Innovation is most often a process of discovery and a voyage into the unknown rather than a quest where the destination was known at the outset. The origin stories for many notable innovations have many twists and unexpected turns. The final product and ultimate application often bears little resemblance to what was originally intended. The fancy phrase used to describe this is that innovations are typically emergent phenomena. In other words we begin the process with one thing in mind and what we end up with is something completely different and unexpected.
This idea that solutions emerge is an important feature of innovation that we need to understand. Without this knowledge we otherwise tend to start with the end in mind. In fact, we would be better off understanding the problem on the deepest level possible, then begin with a blank sheet of paper and see where our exploration and experimentation takes us.
A FERTILE ENVIRONMENT…
In order to have innovation there must be freedom on an individual and collective level to propose and explore new ideas. Clearly if those in authority are not open to new ideas or the coaches and athletes themselves are actively opposed, then the rest matters little.
To some degree innovation requires a receptive audience. The truism that ‘necessity is the mother of invention’ applies here. A competitor or team who is an underdog is naturally more inclined to be receptive to novel ideas and open to trying things. This readiness to entertain new idea and experiment tends to diminish once success has been achieved, so more established teams and performers are typically less receptive.
In either case, there are also opportunities to be strategic in how we experiment with innovations. The evaluation of risk versus reward and projected outcomes will inform the decision to proceed for both coach and athlete. If their current trajectory suggests that continuing on the current path will not lead to success then naturally it is more likely that we might roll the dice and take a calculated risk on an unproven approach that might yield big rewards.
IMPLEMENTATION…
The best innovators excel at making a persuasive case and are exceptional when it comes to implementing their ideas. Communication is how the original idea gets traction with the user. The quality of implementation in turn determines engagement and ultimately success thereafter.
The reason that innovations fail in many instances is not because there was any fundamental flaw in the idea. More often the person proposing the solution failed to convince their audience that it was a worthwhile proposition or there were insurmountable barriers to uptake for potential users. In other words, it requires communication to get a foot in the door and the rest comes down to implementation.
Communicating the ‘why’ is clearly essential. If it is a struggle to persuade coaches and athletes that this is a problem that they should care about then we are in trouble from the outset. By definition, the solutions we are proposing should be fit for purpose and tailored towards a problem that the coach has or addressing a critical aspect of performance that coaches and athletes are naturally inclined to pursue. In other words, the innovation process cannot be disconnected from the end user and the more we can involve coaches and athletes early in the process that greater the likelihood that they will be receptive when it comes to implementation.
Successful implementation involves eliminating barriers to uptake, or at least mitigating them as far as possible. Once again, this means refining the solution with the user in mind. User experience design principles in other domains can and should be applied in the context of sport. If we are seeking to address user ‘pain points’ then clearly we must first understand them, so once again this means involving coaches and users in the process so we can elicit and act upon their input.
SHARED ENDEAVOUR…
Innovations can come from anywhere in a performance environment. It follows that we can unwittingly create obstacles when we assign the duty of ‘innovation’ to an individual or department within our organisation. Proposing and exploring ideas should not be viewed as the exclusive domain of any one person or group of people. By extension the innovation process should not be separated from those on the ground. By definition these are the people who most intimately understand the problems and challenges, and aside from being a source of ideas on potential solutions, their input is invaluable in informing each step in the innovation process.
That said, there can be value to assigning the role of coordinating these individual efforts, allocating resources and overseeing the implementation. The duties of an innovation coordinator should therefore include soliciting ideas from the wider staff, as well as serving as the project manager to facilitate pursuing those ideas that show promise.
Beyond serving these functions, choosing which ideas to move forward with is a profoundly important responsibility. Possessing the vision and foresight to champion and pursue the right idea plays a huge role in determining the success of the endeavour. When we look at prominent companies who failed to innovate and respond to a changing market we often find that the issue was not that they lacked ideas or did not possess the right solutions, but rather that the leadership failed to act on them.
IN CLOSING…
There are notable obstacles to innovation at the highest level and considerable inertia involved. Nevertheless the prize is great for those who possess the courage to break with convention and do things differently.
As coaches and practitioners we should endeavour to keep our eyes and mind open to new ideas and potential solutions to the many challenges we face when operating in competitive sport. Aside from this readiness we should actively seek out exposure to different domains, environment and perspectives. For the team or organisation there must also be a collective commitment to remain constantly engaged in exploration and the ongoing iterative process of experimenting with new ideas and potential solutions.
On both an individual and collective level we need to understand the value of innovations that arise from other domains. This begins by appreciating how innovation differs from invention. Rather than starting from square one, the odds are that others in a different domain have faced a similar problem and come up with a viable solution that we might be able to adapt to our own context.
A final crucial point is that innovation is not simply ‘out with the old and in with the new’. We need to resist the neophile tendency that can lead us to embrace novelty for its own sake. We should not be too quick to abandon the tried and tested in favour of the latest and greatest new trend. The perils of the allure of shiny objects is exemplified when it comes to the adoption of new technology.
Clearly we need to discriminate what works and be selective in deciding what innovations and new solutions are worth investing the time and resource to implement. Ultimately this requires us to have a clear vision and commit to being objective, not only in how we screen new innovations but also in how we audit the methods we currently employ.
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