Innovation Means Being Brave Enough to Take Big Swings and Learn From the Misses

In brief:

• Senior Vice President of eCommerce David Lemons was October’s LINK speaker
• Lemons’ talk centered on innovation and the need to take risks
• Being innovative is being un afraid to fail or to change

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During his 20-year Exchange career and in the private sector as well, Senior Vice President of eCommerce David Lemons has had a lot of big ideas. Some connected, some didn’t and some took a long time to come to fruition.

During October’s LINK presentation, titled “Innovation as Mindset,” Lemons told his audience that he succeeded a lot—but he also failed a lot. He added that part of being innovative is not being afraid to fail or to change.

“You can’t innovate if you’re not willing to change,” said Lemons, who has been in eComm for 11 years and in his current role since June 2021.  “They kind of go hand in hand because innovation is change. So you have to be comfortable with change. If you’re not comfortable with change, you’re going to have problems innovating for your teams, for our customers, for the relevancy of the Exchange.”

This is a time of rapid change at the Exchange, Lemons said, with technological advances in several directorates including eComm and the increased adoption of artificial intelligence organization-wide. Although decisions are still made thoughtfully, the changes have led to a more risk-tasking mindset, which Lemons said is important at all levels.

“Don’t be afraid,” he told the LINK audience. “If you want to be innovators, you have to be brave. You can’t be afraid to fail. You’re going to fail. But if you have good leadership in place, they’re going to help you through those failures.

“I love it when my teams take risks,” he continued. “Risk doesn’t scare me. Not taking risks and not moving forward and not innovating and not doing the things we need to do to be in line with industry or ahead of the industry—that scares me. I would rather be brave and fail than sit stagnant any day.”

Lemons detailed four leadership behaviors that make a team feel safe to take risks: Frame any work as a learning experience; respond to bad news with composure; ask questions and listen before giving your own opinion; and admit to your own failures.

“Safety is not the absence of pressure,” he said. “And innovation can be painful. You get lumps from it, but you shouldn’t fear it, Because if you’re trying, you’re eventually going to succeed. You’ve got to challenge the norm and you’ve got to keep working toward your goal.”

Leaders, he added, should also reward risk—even if it doesn’t lead to successful results. Instead of assigning blame when something doesn’t work, ask what can be learned from the miss and who else can benefit from that knowledge. Recognize people who took risks even if the risks didn’t succeed.

“One of the things I work on all the time is stepping back, letting the eComm team innovate, learn, react,” he said. “Learn, then do it again and do it again. They need to be able to innovate on their own. You can’t come down on people when they fail, particularly when they’re taking a big risk. We can’t fail to the point where we lose our customers,. But we can fail and keep trying until we make sure that we’re providing the customers the best possible outcome.”

LINK (Leaders Inspiring Networks & Knowledge) aims to strengthen workplace culture, boost morale and reinforce the value of connection. Each month, a senior leader hosts a session via Teams aligned to key business priorities.