Kevin Kelly believe that optimists decide the future. That they are the ones that have the enthusiasm and grit to create new things, in the face of pessimists telling them that it goes against the received wisdom and will never work. https://www.valuewalk.com/2017/04/optimists-decide-future-wired-founder-kevin-kelly/?amp=1

In this excellent Freakonomics episode he explains how companies like AirBnB pushed ahead with ideas that others knew wouldn’t work and were ridiculous, like renting your room to strangers. https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519?i=1000475265695

It takes a tonne of resilience (and a good degree of pig headedness) to forge ahead when experts are telling you that your ideas are stupid and won’t work. The ironic things is that in most cases they’re probably right.

Organisations excel at putting up roadblocks. They usually come from a good place. An attempt to prevent people from wasting time and hurting themselves.

Innovators and optimists excel at removing, ignoring or working their way around organisational roadblocks.

As such, innovators are often seen as difficult people, and get a reputation for ignoring the status quo and disassembling others carefully crafted roadblocks.

The people who set these roadblocks up in the first place have a vested interest in seeing these people and these initiatives fail, as it would be politically awkward if they end up succeeding against your better judgement.

As such, optimists and innovators have the double whammy of roadblocks and political sabotage to contend with. This is reputationally risky and energy sapping.

When innovators and optimists get fed up bashing their heads against a brick wall, they’re much more likely to go somewhere else that has a more conducive environment. And companies are always saying that they want more people who think differently, so there are plenty of options

Sadly when this happens the folks who erected roadblocks and worked to derail change feel vindicated. They feel like they did a great job “managing” the situation and protecting the company from the risky and potentially destabilising ideas the innovators.

In this way management is inherently conservative. It’s about keeping as close to the current process and received wisdom as possible, in order to reduce risk.

Managers often get judged and remunerated for making small, tactical improvements while minimising risk.