Outsiders

Todd Henry [00:00:01]:
So I was at a party last weekend and my friend Sean shared a story that I almost couldn't believe was true. In the annals of professional football, and by the way, I mean American football. Few stories are as uniquely fascinating as that of a guy named Fred Cox. So he was a kicker for the Minnesota Vikings, and his journey to becoming a kicker seemed pretty straightforward at first glance. He was a talented athlete from Mahongahela, Pennsylvania, and he initially caught the attention of the NFL scouts as a fullback for the University of Pittsburgh. So he was a running back. He wasn't even a kicker. But a back injury during his college years forced him to pivot.

Todd Henry [00:00:37]:
Rather than giving up on his NFL dreams, Cox demonstrated remarkable adaptability. He transformed himself into a place kicker, a position that would put significantly less strain on his injured back. So the Minnesota Vikings took a chance on him, and in 1963, they made a decision that would prove incredibly fortuitous for both parties. For the next 15 seasons, Cox became one of the most reliable kickers in NFL history. He played in every single Vikings game from 1963 to 1977, accumulating 1,365 points and becoming the team's all time leading scorer. His consistency and longevity made him a legend in Minnesota sports history. But as great of a kicker as he was, that's not why I'm telling this story. Here's where the story takes an unexpected turn.

Todd Henry [00:01:29]:
While Cox was making his mark on the football field, he was also quietly working on something that would impact millions of children's lives, though no one knew it at the time. So during his NFL career, Cox noticed that neighborhood kids often got hurt trying to play football with the hard leather balls that they were kicking, like the ones in the professional game. Or they would kick the ball too far, they would kick it out of their yard, right? This observation led to an innovative breakthrough in toy design. Cox experimented with various materials before discovering that polyurethane foam offered the perfect combination of durability and softness. So he began working with his partner, John Maddox, and developed a unique molding process that allowed the foam to maintain its shape while remaining lightweight and flexible. The manufacturing technique involved injecting the foam mixture into specially designed molds, allowing it to expand and set into the distinctive football shape while creating a consistent density throughout the ball. This creation was something that toy companies had tried to create but could never do because they hadn't thought to use injection molding. Well, as you can guess, this creation would later become known as the Nerf football, arguably one of the most successful toys ever created.

Todd Henry [00:02:48]:
The Nerf football, introduced in 1972, went on to sell millions of units, far surpassing Cox's achievements on the football field. And while he was proud of his NFL career, Cox's lasting legacy wasn't the points he scored or the games he won. It was the countless hours of safe backyard fun that he provided to generations of children through this innovative invention. And as a bonus, it provided him with pretty substantial royalty checks for the rest of his life. From professional athlete to toy inventor, Fred Cox's story reminds us that sometimes our most significant contributions to the world come from unexpected places. His story illustrates how innovation often comes from outsiders who bring fresh perspectives. While established toy companies had tried and failed to create a safe football for children, it took someone from outside the industry, a professional athlete with first hand experience, to see the problem different and introduce an entirely new approach that revolutionized recreational play. On today's episode, we explored how sometimes nurturing our own outside voice can help us make progress on big projects.

Todd Henry [00:03:56]:
This is Daily Creative, a show for creative pros who want to be brave, focused and brilliant every day. My name is Todd Henry. Welcome to the show.

Kim Christfort [00:04:06]:
I am the chief innovation leader for what we call executive accelerators, which includes a concept called the Deloitte Greenhous. Lot of words. What it comes down to though, is really studying what holds human beings back, what's getting in the way, and how do we break through that quite literally to get them to a better place.

Todd Henry [00:04:26]:
That's Kim Christfor, chief innovation leader and national managing director of the Deloitte Greenhouse Experience. She's also the co author of the Breakthrough Manifesto. She and her colleagues are charged with helping companies get past the barriers to innovative thought and help them overcome the friction that sometimes makes innovation challenging.

Kim Christfort [00:04:46]:
If you think about human beings at large, we do in theory want to change sometimes, but we also can be very resistant to change. We like the status quo and I like to say we could be hobbits. We want our little hobbit lives and don't want to be disrupted too much. But the research actually shows that some people are fine just trying something out, jumping out there. Let's experiment, let's ideate. And other people, they really need a good reason to venture outside of what seems to be working really well today.

Todd Henry [00:05:14]:
That need for a good reason can sometimes morph into a more active form of resistance, skepticism. Some people just seem to have never met an idea they like and that can grind new ideas to a halt.

Kim Christfort [00:05:27]:
In fact, people often think that others are smarter if they're skeptical. And so there's this positive association sometimes with that skepticism. I think the distinction we're trying to draw here is between being a critical thinker, asking provocative questions, really seeking truth. That contrasted with cynicism, which is toxic, which shuts things down, which is really a negative doubting presence. And by the way, that could be doubting of others, or it could be doubting of yourself, and it's equally damaging in both situations. I think the other important thing about the distinction is that it's actually great to shut things down sometimes. There's a point where you say, yeah, we're not gonna do that, but if you do that too early, you cut off innovation right when it's starting to bud, and not only for yourself, but for everybody around you. And so it's like this meteor that hits the earth and all things just stop.

Kim Christfort [00:06:23]:
Whereas if you wait and you let things grow and you apply some level of that critical thinking later, again, not toxic cynicism, not the negativity, but that judgment later on, it can actually be quite healthy and help the right ideas to grow and get the fuel they need.

Todd Henry [00:06:38]:
So maybe you're thinking, okay, that's fine in theory, but you don't know my boss. No matter how many times I try to convince her that an idea is worth pursuing, she shuts it down. It makes me want to just shut up and do what I'm told. So how do I deal with that? Well, Kim has some thoughts.

Kim Christfort [00:06:54]:
I find sometimes the logical path works because if somebody's skeptical, it may be because they're just a very analytical mind and they want to have a logical answer to everything. And so if I explain the logic of why them voicing those opinions at that point in time is going to negatively impact the outcomes of our effort. Sometimes that's enough, and they go, okay, fine, like, I'll reserve it. As long as you give me an opportunity later, that's okay. I get it. For other people, it's hard because it's perhaps not coming from the I'm just wanting to be analytical place. It's coming from something else. In those situations, I actually recommend creating a process or an environment that minimizes the impact that can have.

Kim Christfort [00:07:36]:
So, for instance, that could take the shape of creating an agenda where other people are given explicit opportunities to speak and present their viewpoints. And we reserve the discussion and the Q and A until much later so it doesn't get too steamrolled early on. That could also mean that we're having people submit thoughts anonymously, that we do it through a channel where we can filter and we can cluster ideas which may take that outlier negative opinion and put it off to the side and lets us really focus on where the momentum of the group is going.

Todd Henry [00:08:09]:
But one of the biggest challenges isn't necessarily just external skepticism. It's our own inner critic. As we gain experience in our field, we develop a keen sense of what should work, what's practical, what's realistic. While this wisdom is definitely invaluable, it can also become a creative straightjacket. I mean, think about it. How many times have you had an idea that excited you initially only to talk yourself out of it because it seemed too impractical or too unconventional? Our professional experience can become a double edged sword. The very expertise that helps us understand our field deeply can also blind us to novel possibilities that don't fit our established patterns of thinking. This is particularly challenging because our skepticism often masquerades as wisdom.

Todd Henry [00:08:59]:
We might pride ourselves on being practical or realistic, when in reality we're simply afraid to venture beyond our comfort zone. The most groundbreaking innovations often seem impractical, even foolish at first glance. If we immediately dismiss ideas that don't fit our preconceptions of what's possible or what's practical, we might be cutting ourselves off from our most promising opportunities. Does that happen to you? Well, the key is learning to balance our hard earned wisdom with a willingness to entertain seemingly impractical ideas. Sometimes we need to temporarily suspend our judgment and allow ourselves to explore possibilities that our experienced practical minds might initially reject. Innovation often lies in that uncomfortable space between what we know works and what we haven't yet tried.

Kim Christfort [00:09:49]:
The principle of stripping away everything, it actually relates to a concept that many people have, have talked about, this idea of a beginner's mindset. And if you think about what is a beginner's mindset, a beginner doesn't have all that history and experience. They don't necessarily know everything about a topic. And a beginner is probably open to learning and to, to experiencing and experimenting in a different way. So what we're really saying with this is try to get yourself out of your own way. I find sometimes that our experts are the worst on this because they've been around the block, they've, they, oh, that, that doesn't work. I've tried that. It's a classic conversation.

Kim Christfort [00:10:27]:
What about this? No, I tried that. What about this? I tried that and they shut everything down. And that can cross over pretty quickly, by the way. Until that, to that negative silence, silence your cynic opportunity. But I think that when we take a step back and we say, all right, let's assume for a moment that something has changed. And therefore my expertise, while very relevant, may not apply directly here. And what questions would I ask if I didn't have that expertise in mind? That's the starting point, I think, to really get into that beginner's mindset.

Todd Henry [00:10:58]:
But no matter what it feels like, innovation isn't a solo sport. We need the perspective of others in order to do our own best work.

Kim Christfort [00:11:07]:
The second part of it, though, is actually being willing to learn from others. Because it's one thing to say, okay, I'm going to ask really smart questions and I'm going to pretend I don't know anything. It's another thing to say. And I am going to be open to somebody who doesn't know much about this, telling me something and learning from that in return. One of the things we talk about in the book is the importance of what we're calling questioning orthodoxies, questioning beliefs. And there's a lot to it. But there's a simple start. And the simple start is to take one of those things that you believe to be true and flip it, phrase it in reverse.

Kim Christfort [00:11:40]:
So if I think that only people who love the color blue can be on my team and nobody else, because the blue people really get it and they see things the way no one else can, if I flip that and I say we should always have other colors on a team, or blue is actually not the best color to have on a team, and then force myself to test, okay, could that be true? What would it take for it to be true? What's behind that statement? And really getting underneath the covers, Because I do think that not only do we make assumptions because they help us and they have worked in the past, but at the same time, the world is changing. And so they've helped us in the past. But we may not be tracking how things are changing, and they may not actually help us in the future. And so it's a good, proactive way to get ahead of something that might disrupt us later on.

Todd Henry [00:12:32]:
While inconvenient, asking uncomfortable questions is an effective way to disrupt thought ruts and comfortable patterns that could be obscuring immense value.

Kim Christfort [00:12:42]:
If you are going down a road, you, in theory could have it in autopilot to a certain extent, and it stays on that road. But if you want to get to transformative innovation, you need to question, should we even be on a road? Should we be hovering? Should we be flying in a Different craft. Should we be the ones driving? That's how you get to these big, bold ideas in the marketplace, is by not being on that same road and assuming the autopilot's gonna take you where you wanna be.

Todd Henry [00:13:07]:
So this all sounds great, right? Innovate, share bold new ideas, go against the grain. In theory, that's fine, but maybe you're like me and you've been worn down from time to time by people who love to talk about big, bold ideas, but when the time comes to take action, they retreat into their comfortable silos. How can you be an innovator in an organization that wants to play it safe?

Kim Christfort [00:13:31]:
It is so hard if you're a person who wants to innovate and seize opportunity and you just get shut down. And so I don't think there's a real simple answer in that. Many times there's organizational constructs that hold people back. Many times it's the people they're reporting to. I will say universally, though, I think it helps to figure out, what is the language of your company? Does your company talk in terms of roi? Does your company talk in terms of culture? What is that language of your company? And phrase the innovation opportunity in that language. And by doing that, you're more likely to be heard. If I speak to you in your own language, you're more likely to understand than if you have to have a translation in the middle. So I think the first step is figuring out why does innovation matter to this company and how do you express that in.

Kim Christfort [00:14:18]:
In a way that's gonna resonate?

Todd Henry [00:14:20]:
Kim Christfort. Kim Crisfort's new book is called Kim Crisfort's book is called the Breakthrough Manifesto. And you can hear our full extended interview in the Daily Creative app at DailyCreative app. Here's what I'm taking away from today's episode. I need to stop talking myself out of ideas. Instead, I need to stay open for as long as I can, even to the ideas that make me uncomfortable. And when sharing ideas with others, I need to default to making the business case, not the innovation case. I need to speak the language of those I'm speaking with.

Todd Henry [00:14:56]:
And finally, I hope we can all renew our commitment to maintaining a beginner's mindset and to seeking value by asking simple, maybe even naive sounding questions. Hey, thank you so much for listening. If you'd like daily episodes, Q and A segments, full extended interviews, videos, courses, and much more, you can get them in the Daily Creative app, including, by the way, the full archives. You can access them at dailycreative app. My name is Todd Henry. You can find my work, my speaking, my books and more@toddhenry.com or wherever books are sold. Until next time. May you be brave, focused and.