InnovationCreation

Several years ago I had a chance to learn how to fly on the trapeze. A local Bloomington, Indiana circus, The High Flyers Family Circus, had their equipment in the back yard of one of the members. I grabbed several of my roommates and convinced them to go over to the yard and give flying a try.

What made this an easy decision was the net below the rig. This net gave us the confidence to try something new with safety.

Several weeks ago I heard about the California Pizza Kitchen's approach to getting people to try their pizza with safety; If you tried their pizza and did not like it then you got your money back right then and there. The money back guarantee was the safety net.

When companies develop new products and services, it sometimes requires the company's employees to jump in a new direction. In the innovation world the talk is about moving from one S-Curve to a higher S-curve. You want your employees to make these leaps. You want those new S-curves. You need to lead your company across that gap from S-curve to S-curve. What can you do to create a guarantee or a safety net? Can there be such a net?