Freedom to Innovate

In a kids basketball game, our boys were was down by sixty points in the last quarter. They knew there was no way they could win; the other team was clearly dominant. But, since they felt they had already lost, they stopped playing to win or lose, and something interesting happened.

The boys started experimenting. Since it really didn't matter, they started trying plays and shots that were too risky to use in normal play. They'd try a flurry of silly passes, behind the back and between the legs, they'd give and go and go and go. And, not only was it fun, but they actually closed the gap and ended up losing by only forty points, instead of sixty.

Competition - trying to beat the other guy - tends to produce conservative behaviour; we stick with what works. When we free ourselves from win/lose thinking, when we play like it just doesn't matter, innovation and experimentation blossom.

When asked about the success of the last quarter, one player answered, "Since what we had been doing wasn't working anyway, it seemed OK to just play around and try some new stuff." That's innovation.