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Excerpt

Key Ideas From The Innovation Paradox

When ingrained attitudes about success and failure change, the meaning of every act of management changes too.

 "Success" and "failure" are merely labels we hang on complex events trying to simplify them.

 It's not success or failure but success and failure.

The real pinnacle is when we are so engaged in what we're doing that the distinction between success and failure vanishes.

Gamblers say that the next best thing to winning is losing.

We've evolved to feel more alive during times of crisis than periods of calm.

Adversity and upheaval can be far more powerful agents of change than planning and consultants.

A good research man, Charles Kettering liked to say, failed every time but the last one.

Those who are too afraid to make a mistake work for those who aren't.

For corrections to occur, mistakes must be made.

It is utterly human to respond better to the travail of others than to their triumphs.

Success is at least as hazardous as failure.

Those who do well in school find it hard to take risks later on.

If it ain't broke, fix it anyway!

Xerox is a classic example of a business that was too successful.

When working for a prize, we do only what's necessary to get it and no more.

Employ methods that are as disorderly as life itself.

Nothing is as hard to see as what's right before our eyes.

Innovators are seldom easy to be around.

Because it tolerates mavericks 3M attracts mavericks.

Not all failures are created equal.

To encourage innovation, take a genuine interest in employees' work.

A blunder admitted is empathy earned.

Fresh thinking is more likely to result from collaboration than competition.

Managers who develop an atmosphere of safety put new glasses on everyone's emotional eyes.

Only those who are willing to risk looking foolish can invent a breakthrough, give a speech, found a company, or stand up for a principle.

If we didn't get anxious we would have vanished as a species long ago.

Excitement is the flip side of fear.

Stressing winning inhibits daring.

Success is a reward for doing a job well, not for doing a good job of pursuing success. 

Remorse is far more likely about being too cautious than about being too reckless.

We may not know until late in life where we actually succeeded, and where we didn't.