Forget 'Design by Committee': Why True Innovation Comes from Solo Visionarie

I want you to take a second and think about famous innovations. Think about the amazing people who thought of these concepts and the impact of their work on the rest of the world.

How many of these innovations were passed through a committee?

Oh sure, there may have been another person or two who closely worked on the individual projects, but the concept itself was likely the brainchild of one person, who was fortunate to be associated with like-minded people.

Steve Wozniak

When Steve Wozniak set out to create the personal computer, did he huddle together with a large group and get the opinions of everyone involved? Did he form a focus group, to see if the general public even wanted a personal computer?

While working at Hewlett-Packard, Wozniak would arrive an hour or two before work. He would read engineering magazines, computer manuals and anything else he could get his hands on that would help him fulfill his dream. After work, he would go home and put everything he had learned into practice.

The result was the Apple I computer, which was completed in 1976. With the marketing and sales genius of Steve Jobs, the two went on to change the world.

George Lucas

In 1977, a film about Jedis, Droids, Darth Vader and something called “The Force” took the movie industry by storm. However, this particular film would have likely not seen the light of day, had it’s creator worked within the confines of the movie business.

To allow himself the freedom of working and creating as he saw fit, George Lucas formed Lucasfilm in 1971.

He had a vision for Star Wars, a Sci-fi film the likes of which the world had never seen. “Star Trek“, created a decade before, was hardly a proper warm-up act for Lucas’ creation. He had developed the storyline and characters. In fact, he looked so far into the future that he was able to create enough content to last for generations. To this day, we are still seeing “new” work that originates from the 1970′s.

Where was the committee that made all of this happen? Don’t look too hard, because it doesn’t exist.

This was the work of one man, one vision and a team of those that wanted to see HIS vision through.

Make It Yours

In Corporate America, why are brilliant ideas immediate brought before a committee? Why must the creative process be diluted by those that lack vision or think they must put their stamp on something, before it sees the light of day?

Today, “design by committee” results in a watered-down product that my have many features, but lacks the passion of the original concept. This also ensures that no single person takes the blame for a failed idea. Blame is spread across a group of people evenly.

If you have an idea, be it big or small — make it YOURS. If it fails; well, that’s yours too. However, you and your company are better for your own personal efforts. Many great people have failed and moved on to great success. In many cases, those failures have actually spawned unintended success. Go ahead and fail!

To fail, is to succeed. To compromise, is to fail.

Your company needs innovators. The world needs innovators. The world needs you.