3 Humorous Examples of Innovation Resistance
Seriously?
“The advance of technology is based on making it fit in so that you don’t really even notice it, so it’s part of everyday life.”
But what does Gates mean by this?
Nothing is new about humans resisting change. Literally. Doing change successfully anywhere requires hard work and the actual management of change (everyone heard about change management) at hand. It is a lot of work. Read on to discover three hilarious examples of early innovation resistance.
1.Electricity
But we always work. Let’s have a little fun and see how in the past, often unjustified fears about the inevitable new have formed or tried to be overcome.
When electricity was first introduced in buildings and homes, people (somewhat rightfully) feared it. There were no safety circuits available, for example when the first electric lights were installed in the White House in 1891 and the president at the time feared electrocution himself even touching the lights. Later, the fears were maybe less justified, as more safety systems were introduced. A US newspaper entry from 1900 reads, “Do we really need it when gas lights work just fine and horses are easier to ride than cars?”.
Nowadays, we don’t even waste a thought on the wiring behind our walls. The opposite is true. “Where is the nearest outlet I need to charge!”
A newly installed electric light in the White House converted from gas lighting.
Source: Library of Congress, c. 1899
2.Cars
Let’s also have a look at cars back then: It was kinda the same.
When originally introduced, not humankind, but horses, were a problem. Easily scared and causing issues for traffic safety at the time, a patent was handed in showing a fake horse head mounted to a car. You heard right: A fake horse head was what someone thought could be the solution to the fear of a new technology. It was designed to take stress out for the houses encountering these new, loud machines.
And today? We might laugh at this. Cars pass us like flies every day. But it can remind us of how technology really is dependent on the “fit” with society to be accepted.
Source: US Patent Office via wired.com, 2015
One could conclude that the fear of new things in society has always existed. The examples of fear geared towards the use of electricity or cars: In some parts, in their specific setting: Yes. The concerns may have been justified for a short while. But with technology and its influence, society kept changing and accepting over time. Technology made its way into daily life. This is what Gates means by “making it fit”. That we do not notice it anymore in daily life.
3.Dishwashers
The very first patent of a dishwasher was in 1850.
Source: United States Patent Office
First patented before 1900, the first dishwasher was not very effective. It sprayed water onto dishes and was propelled by hand. However, even when dishwashers became more efficient and Miele marked the first motorized dishwasher in 1929, adoption took a long time to start not necessarily because of the technology (though the early ones really weren’t that great) but of the persisting image of women in households at the time.
According to today’s historians, adoption was hampered due to societal perception of woman at that time. Back then, society valued a woman who is putting in effort in order to maintain a household. Not necessarily the results that were achieved. A machine, that would therefore ease household chores, was seen by some as some to reduce the value of household women.
Crazy, right?
What can we learn?
Resistance is real. The fears of the past – we might perceive them today as somewhat surreal. We might even laugh at them. As indicated by Gates, the inventions above are all engrained in our everyday life today. So why even bother looking back?
Almost all successful inventions and their “diffusion” can be described in a somewhat consistent pattern. Everett Rogers, an American communication theorist and sociologist, became famous for developing the following diffusion model (simplified below).
Source: Tungsten - self-made based on Rogers, E. (1962) Diffusion of innovations. Free Press, London, NY, USA., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8043923
While a first look at the model does not allow us to determine how long the diffusion of innovation might take (in terms of time), it does show us the phases. Innovators and early adopters allow the initial introduction of the “new” with an early majority and late majority following. In the end, it might diffuse to a high market share (yellow line) with only laggards resisting the change (for example, my mom only started using internet banking until “regular” face-to-face banking became unavailable at her bank).
The message I think is crucial here is this one: There is always resistance. Sometimes it is justified. Not everything is great. But today’s greatest inventions are seen in today’s context. In the future, the context may be different. We might have already gotten used to AI and IoT, for example. It is nothing new anymore. We might look back at today in a decade or two (or even less) and laugh at our fears.
Again, I am not advocating for blind innovation. There are risks, and they need to be catered for (especially when it comes to automated decision-making). They need to be respected. But there is a reason cars were invented first, and brakes second.
If brakes were invented first, would there ever have been a car?
You?
Do you recall an interesting example of innovation in your organization? Did you see how people feared the “inevitable”? Or was it justified? As always, I would love to hear your comments below and connect with you.
