Address Technical and Political Challenges

"I'm sure they know that I'm right... but why can't they support what I'm trying to do?"

If I had a peso every time I heard that, I'd be able to buy a DJI Matrice.

Successful innovation requires two things. First, the idea has to be technically sound - it's the right thing to do. Second, there must be sufficient support from the people affected by it.

While the first requirement deals mostly with "what", "when", "where", and "how", the second has to do with "why" and "who". As in, "who are supporting the innovation, and who are opposing it?", followed by the important question of "why are they in favour, or opposed?".

When technical and political problems come up in the course of pushing for reform, the innovator needs to address both.

Technical constraints could be easier to deal with - observe, document, analyse the problem, if necessary do more research - then come up with a technical solution.

Political resistance is usually more difficult to deal with. Lucky is the innovator who is confronted with outright political resistance - then he knows it's there, and he can start dealing with it.

Many times though political resistance is veiled. It can take the form of passive resistance, or couched behind a series of technical "problems" that turn out to be no problem at all. In situations like these, the innovator's challenge would be to discern and detect political resistance early on.

Once he has determined that there is political resistance, the innovator must then find out who is resisting and why. Then he has to establish better communication with these actors.

“Resistance means there is insufficient rapport,” says my favourite Neuro-Linguistic Programming authors. When there is open and candid communication, alignment of objectives, agreement to work together. Sometimes the friendship that often comes with rapport simply dissolves the resistance. But without rapport, the smallest technical problem can become a reform/innovation killer.

Let's face it, though - there are just some circumstances where the innovator is simply not "acceptable" to people who oppose the innovation. This is where teams and coalitions can help much. There could be members of the innovation team or coalition who are friends of the opposition, or can bridge a dialogue.

In extreme cases, where resistance is directed at the innovator (and not the innovation), he can choose to simply remove himself from the scene, and let his team mates take over as "face of the project". This requires a huge amount of humility, but could be the only way to address political resistance.

Technical and political - don’ think of these as obstacles. Instead, see them as opportunities that lead to achievement of the reform you want to see in place.