The Innovation Show

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“The most dangerous thing in the world is to diagnose and treat a symptom while ignoring the cause.” — Dr. John Mack, Psychologist and Author.

“Before you let people blunder around reinventing the process every time someone gets the urge to innovate, it makes sense to understand it first.” — Rita McGrath (“The End of Competitive Advantage”)

“Organisations often focus on what’s easy to see, the symptoms, rather than investing in uncovering the deeper systemic issues that are the true barriers to success.” — Peter Senge

“Understanding the underlying structure of a problem allows for more strategic and effective solutions.” — Clayton Christensen.

I’ve suffered from recurring elbow pain for years. Over time, I tried various treatments — physical therapy, stretches, rest, and even modifications to my exercise routine. These approaches provided only temporary relief, and my symptoms often returned, sometimes worse than before.

Recently, as I increased the intensity of my training, the pain became severe. My initial instinct, like that of many dealing with elbow pain, was to assume the issue lay in the elbow joint itself. I focused on strengthening the surrounding muscles and reducing strain during workouts.

Yet, despite my efforts, the pain persisted and worsened. Traditional treatments failed to address the deeper issue: a nerve in my elbow was being aggravated due to a subtle misalignment in my shoulder and rib cage. This imbalance caused compensatory movements in my arm and forearm, placing additional stress on the nerve.

No elbow-focused therapy could relieve the pain until the true root cause — the misalignment — was identified and addressed.

Misaligned Rewards: A Barrier to Innovation

My experience mirrors a common misstep in organizational leadership: misdiagnosing the root cause of a problem and focusing on symptoms instead.

When leaders address symptoms — like a lack of employee creativity — without tackling underlying systemic issues, they risk aggravating the problem. Misaligned incentives can discourage innovation by fostering a culture of risk aversion.

For example, employees may avoid proposing bold ideas due to fear of failure or career repercussions. The reward system may unintentionally value safe, predictable behaviors over the creative risk-taking that drives innovation.

Just as addressing my misaligned shoulder and rib cage alleviated my elbow pain, organizations must identify and rectify the root causes of their challenges. This starts with aligning incentives to promote the desired behaviors.

The Symptoms in Action

“What gets measured gets managed — even when it’s pointless to measure and manage it, and even if it harms the purpose of the organisation to do so.” — V. F. Ridgway

This recurring challenge is the topic of our forthcoming episode of The Innovation Show with the author of “Reward Systems” and “On the Folly of Rewarding A,While Hoping for B”, Steve Kerr.

Take, for example, a manufacturing company that sought to optimize its operations by improving the shipping cycle. The metric for success was defined as “goods shipped,” interpreted as products leaving company premises. Predictably, employees rushed incomplete products to rail sidings just to meet the metric, leading to inefficiencies and customer dissatisfaction.

Similarly, one we all know too well. In the airline industry, “on-time departures” are defined as planes leaving the gate on schedule. This metric often incentivizes airlines to move planes away from gates, even if it means passengers sit idle on the tarmac, sacrificing customer satisfaction for a flawed operational definition.

These examples show how organizations often reward behaviors that undermine their true goals.

As Steve Kerr highlights, organizations must reward the behaviors they truly want, not just those that are easy to measure. By addressing root causes and aligning systems with desired outcomes, organizations can avoid the pitfalls of misdiagnosis and unlock their full potential.

In both personal health and organizational strategy, success lies in accurate diagnosis and thoughtful intervention. Whether alleviating chronic pain or fostering innovation, the solution is the same: go beyond the symptoms to uncover and address the true root cause.

This is that episode with Steve Kerr:

https://medium.com/media/37d7c73aae8b75a79db06ad9357a4cd1/href

Here is another episode with friend of The Show, Jayshree Seth.

https://medium.com/media/57954cf2406306670bc0bd24c3e145f1/href

Misdiagnosis in Organisational Change: A Lesson from Elbow Pain was originally published in The Thursday Thought on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.