CONTRARIAN THINKING. If a problem’s been around for a while, it probably can’t be cracked with conventional thinking. Seek out the positive deviants, like Nucor and Haier. Borrow ideas from other domains, like biology, startups, and crowdsourcing. Rigorously challenge your deepest assumptions. Do all this, and you’ll increase the odds of finding a novel solution.

COMPASSION. People aren’t merely skeptical; they’re cynical—and with good reason. Everyone’s fighting their own corner and looking out for their own interests. When asked to help, most people will ask, “What’s in it for me?” To jump this hurdle, you have to put others first. When colleagues see you working to understand their needs, when you help them craft their experiments, and ensure they get the credit, they’ll start to trust you. When your compassion shines through, people will take risks with you and pick you up when you fall.

CONNECTIONS. Building a community is the most important thing an activist can do. This is the ultimate multiplier of individual effort. Employees eager to try something new often make the mistake of asking their boss for permission. Usually they get shot down, or win only grudging support. This isn’t entirely the manager’s fault. A priori, it’s hard to know whether an underdeveloped idea is brilliant or batty. Since great ideas are rare, the default setting for most managers is to say no. So don’t go up, go out. Talk to your peers. Find a few colleagues who will help you build and run an experiment. It’s easy for a manager to say no to a lone supplicant, but much harder to turn aside a small band of partisans who are passionate about making things better and have already made a start.

In order to encourage our employees like Kari and their managers like Jack to shift their mind-set in the direction of experimentation, we use the image of placing bets. This motivates employees to think of themselves as entrepreneurs—who typically don’t succeed without some failures. The examples of Kari and (from a few pages back) Paolo reflect everyday life at Netflix. We want all employees taking bets they believe in and trying new things, even when the boss or others think the ideas are dumb. When some of those bets don’t pay off, we just fix the problems that arise as quickly as possible and discuss what we’ve learned. In our creative business, rapid recovery is the best model.

The Netflix Innovation Cycle

If you have an idea you’re passionate about, do the following:

1. “Farm for dissent,” or “socialize” the idea.

1. For a big idea, test it out.

1. As the informed captain, make your bet.

1. If it succeeds, celebrate. If it fails, sunshine it.

We suggest instead a three-part response:

1. Ask what learning came from the project.

1. Don’t make a big deal about it.

1. Ask her to “sunshine” the failure.

A system for innovation

How do you increase the chances that a failed adhesive turns into a brilliant product? With a system designed to bring curious risk-takers together. Encourage and celebrate boundary spanning. Provide resources and slack time. Normalize intelligent failure and celebrate pivots. Declare that you want a significant portion of your company’s revenues (or school’s curricula or family’s activities) to come from new and different products, courses, or experiences. Successful innovation does not come from the lone genius. Importantly, each of these familiar elements of innovation is reinforced by each of the others. The whole is more than the sum of the parts.