Should innovators procrastinate?
YES, we should.
Procrastination is defined as needlessly putting off something to a later time that must to be done anyway.
In an age, where progress is driven by speed of technology advances and rapid behavioral changes of customers, we often don’t take time to think and evaluate the consequences of what we create. We don’t take time to consider the ecosystem and the wider impact of intended and unintended consequences.
We need to let ideas simmer for a while.
This is important for new connections to form between concepts and better ideas to emerge. Einstein used to float for hours in a boat on a lake, instead of doing physics. But that is when many ideas emerge — when we do nothing. There is even science that proofs the value of “Free-floating periods of thought” (1).
We also need time to allow us to step back and look at ideas from different angles. Something that might look great at first, may show itself as a bad idea when we zoom out and look at it holistically. Or we might find new and more holistic ideas that were not visible previously.
So… Yes! Innovators should procrastinate.
But what does it mean in practice?
Example: your next ideation workshop
If you are planning an ideation session, don’t force people to come up with ideas in the workshop. We cannot be creative on demand.
Instead, send out the question and framing for you ideation session in advance, and give people the chance to think about it in their own time. Then use the workshop session itself to discuss the ideas.
But! Don’t rush to prioritising and making a choice in that session. Schedule a followup the next day, so that people can sleep over it. It enables them to step back and reflect.
Then come back the next day to discuss and evaluate further. You can use additional frameworks in the second session to help uncover blindspots and unintended consequences.
Tools for finding blindspots
The 4 product risks, circular frameworks, ecosystem mapping, responsible tech frameworks. There are many more. And you can also create you own for values that are important for your organization.
Set a time box
In general, it helps to set an intentional time box for procrastination and for that time where can let yourself drift without taking action. This is important because it helps to prevent feeling guilty for doing nothing — this happens to me sometimes. But it also helps to spring back into action, and make sure that procrastination does not become a blocker.
Finally…
As innovators need to find the right balance between action and reflection. We need to create space and time for us and our collaborators to think things through. Only then can we go beyond the obvious and create truly valuable innovation that avoids unintended consequences.
