Companies want innovation but fire the innovators

Companies hire and reward employees that are good at operating the business.

This means:

• Rewarding conformity
• Suppressing original thinking
• Punishing those who challenge rules

Innovators, on the other hand, will:

• Challenge the status quo
• Break processes that "work fine"
• Think independently
• Bypass hierarchy

The truth is:

The best innovators are the worst employees.

Innovators question established practices and don't follow standard procedures.

Managers give poor performance reviews, and coworkers see them as difficult people.

Consider someone like Steve Jobs—would any traditional company hire him?

Wouldn't most view him as an impossible colleague?

How quickly would the corporate system push him out?

The result?

True disruptors leave to build startups.

And a few years later, companies pay premium prices to acquire the very startups founded by those employees.

This is what happened to Steve Jobs when he was fired from Apple. Apple later acquired NeXT Computer, the new company he started.

So here's a question:

When you challenge the status quo, bypass hierarchy, or break rules, do you feel encouraged or do you fear losing your job?

Is your company enabling innovators or is it pushing them out?