Let’s be honest about the job title.
If you “head of innovation” or if you are leading a corporate innovation strategy or a major transformation project, you’ve a target on your back.
You walk into meetings thinking you are going to future-proof the company. But to the managers of Sales, Operations, and Compliance, you are a threat.
You are there to disrupt the machinery that pays their mortgages. And deep down, you know that while they nod politely at your slides, they are waiting for you to fail.
This isn’t just “office politics.” It is a law of human nature that was mapped out 500 years ago by Niccolò Machiavelli.
In his book The Prince (1513), Machiavelli warned that trying to change an organization is the most dangerous thing a leader can do. He explained exactly why with one brutal insight:
“The innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and only cautious backers in those who may do well under the new.”
Enemies vs. Cautious Backers.
You are fighting an unfair battle.
Machiavelli identifies two groups in your company, and they care about your project in very different ways.
1. Your Enemies (protecting the Old Ways)
These are the people running the business today. They are comfortable. Their bonuses are tied to the way things work right now.
- Their Motivation: They are fighting to protect what they already have.
- Their Intensity: High. They will fight you with everything they have.
2. Your Allies (supporting the New Ways)
These are the people who might benefit if your innovation works.
- Their Motivation: They are hoping for a future reward.
- Their Intensity: Low. They are just Cautious Backers. They won’t stick their necks out for a “maybe.”
It’s an unfair fight:
Your enemies are terrified of losing. Your friends are just hopeful for winning.
Psychologically, fear of loss is twice as powerful as the desire for gain.
That means your enemies will work twice as hard to kill your project as your friends will work to save it.
A Solution to Corporate Innovation Strategy: Sabotage Audit
Most innovators try to fix this by ‘selling’ harder. They make better slides, promise more revenue (a trap I explain in Why ROI Is Not Enough) and list all the ‘Pros.’ But that doesn’t work.
But that doesn’t work. Your enemies don’t care about the “Pros.” They are fixated on the “Cons.”
To survive, you need to stop selling and start disarming.
I call this The Sabotage Audit (a simplified version of Kurt Lewin’s Force Field Analysis).
Step 1: Draw the Line Grab a whiteboard. Draw a line down the middle.
- Left Side: List why your project is great (Growth, Speed, Tech).
- Right Side: List why your colleagues are scared (Loss of control, harder work, confusing new tools).
Step 2: Find the Incentive Don’t write names. Write incentives.
- Bad: “Dave from Sales hates this.”
- Good: “The Sales team loses their commission during the transition.”
Step 3: The Machiavellian Move Most people try to win by making the Left Side (the good stuff) bigger. They shout louder. This just makes people resist more.
Don’t do that.
Ignore the Left Side. Spend your energy removing one thing from the Right Side.
If the Sales Director is scared of losing his bonus, don’t show him a chart of future growth. See how you can guarantee his bonus for the first year.
If you remove the fear, the resistance collapses. You haven’t just managed a stakeholder; you have disarmed an enemy.
To survive:
Acknowledge the War: People don’t hate change; they hate losing things.
Beware of Cautious Backers: A polite nod in a meeting is not support. Unless they have skin in the game, they will abandon you when things get hard.
Run the Sabotage Audit: Stop selling the dream. Start dismantling the nightmares.
Innovation isn’t just about being creative.
It’s about making it safe for others to say “Yes.”
P.S. Mastering this political game is hard to do alone.
I occasionally host a closed-door “Political Strategy for Innovators” worksgroups where we discuss the Anti-Sabotage Strategies you can use in your company.
I keep these cohorts small to ensure we can discuss sensitive internal challenges openly. Reach out if you want to be the first to know when the next round opens.
