Image: Dinard, FR
Connecting Dots is the monthly newsletter for innovation leaders by Brett Macfarlane.
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What To Do When: Your Innovation Succeeds
WTDW series
The dream of any innovation program, project, team, or leader is to see their concept survive incubation and make it out into the world. Release alone is a major success. There are countless ways even the best concepts—with strong support and clear strategic rationale—fail to make it to the runway, let alone take flight.
It’s no surprise, then, that 94% of executives report disappointment with their innovation outcomes. What’s curious is that we live in a time where the tools and dematerialized nature of work should make it easier to continuously release micro-innovations for incremental improvement, alongside macro-innovations that drive step-change impact.
Yet for those who do make it through the gauntlet and ship, there’s rarely a playbook for what comes next.
There’s the adrenaline of seeing your idea out in the world—watching real people use it in real contexts, not just in test environments. But after launch day, the default is to move quickly into cleanup, optimization, scaling, or adaptation.
Before you do, it’s worth pausing to do three things. They may seem obvious, but they’re often overlooked.
Celebrate
It’s right to feel proud of bringing something new into the world. But it’s also easy to fall into the trap of thinking you’ve cracked the code of innovation.
In reality, each initiative unfolds in a different context, with different people and constraints. Over time, most outcomes regress toward the mean. You may improve your hit rate, but no one bats 100%—unless they get lucky once and stop there.
So take the moment. Celebrate it with those who were part of the journey—including the detractors and challengers. Even if they felt like a pebble in your shoe, they played a role in sharpening the work.
Diminish your shadow for others
Even the most supportive leader creates some level of dependency during an innovation journey. You become closely associated with the work, often seen as the one who carried it across the line.
But as the innovation moves forward, your continued presence—real or perceived—can unintentionally constrain others.
It’s important to make explicit what actually drove success, through the eyes of your colleagues and your customers. Distill the principles, values, and decision patterns that shaped the innovation.
Codify these into something transferable—a kind of knowledge heirloom—so the next team can make decisions in service of the innovation and its users, rather than your legacy.
Remake your identity for yourself
After the release, doubt often creeps in. Was that a one-off? Can I do it again? Do I have the energy to start over?
This matters—for both you and your organization.
Take time for a personal retrospective. Not just what happened, but what you’re carrying forward. What do you want to leave behind? What has this experience changed in how you work, lead, or think?
This is less about documenting the past and more about re-authoring your future. You may choose to apply what you’ve learned in more routine contexts, or step into a bigger challenge.
Either way, being intentional about how you redefine your leadership practice keeps you grounded, relevant, and ready for what’s next.
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Questions, reflections and feedback to info@brettmacfarlane.com