We often allow past decisions to dictate our present and future innovations. “That’s how we’ve always done things,” you might recall someone saying — or “we’ve come this far, we can’t change now.”

Innovation requires an open mindset, where people ask questions, challenge ideas, and reassess strategies. Yet organisations often focus on limited ideas, metrics, and values without changing direction, frequently leading to stagnation or disaster.

Had management listened to its engineers’ safety concerns, could NASA have avoided the Challenger disaster?

Could BlackBerry have remained the best-selling mobile phone brand if its leaders, including cofounder Mike Lazaridis, had rethought their strategy to adapt to the smartphone revolution?

Can we design another breakthrough moment — like the first iPod click wheel or the simplicity of Google’s search box — by rethinking what meaningful interaction really means?

The inability to rethink our strategies and change course is prevalent in…