In a recent article published in The Echoes, Philippe Aghion, Nobel Prize in Economics 2025 - of which I already have Exposed the theses here, recalls a principle that is as simple as it is disturbing: You have to be able to fail to take risks. A statement that may seem obvious, but whose implications are rarely fully assumed, especially in businesses.
Because if we finally accept that innovation is not a linear process, then we must also accept what comes with it: trial, error, detour... and sometimes abandonment.
Innovation is a strategy of iteration, not certainty
Innovating is not “getting the right idea the first time.” It's moving forward in successive cycles: testing, learning, adjusting, pivoting. This is exactly what start-ups experience in their search for the right Go-to-Market. Chess is not an accident: it is its raw material.
In my interventions as an innovation speaker, I often remind myself that organizations that succeed in the long term are not those that avoid mistakes, but those that know how to draw quick and actionable lessons from them. Without this logic of iteration, innovation freezes or is limited to marginal optimizations.
The right to fail only exists if it is actually allowed
Saying “you have the right to fail” is not enough. However, this right must be credible.
At X (formerly Google X), teams not only celebrate successes, but also attempts that were stopped on time. An abandoned project is not experienced as an individual failure, but as useful information for the future. This culture is radically changing the way risks are taken.
Conversely, in many organizations, error is still associated with fault, blame, or personal exposure. In this context, no one is trying anything. And without attempt, there is no creativity or innovation. This is a central point that I systematically address in creativity conferences.
Psychological safety: the non-negotiable condition
Here is where the concept of Psychological Safety becomes decisive. Without psychological safety, employees do not take initiatives. They are complying. They execute. They protect their perimeter.
The management paradigm of the last century — based on control and efficiency — is no longer enough in a world where adaptability and creativity have become the keys to success.
- Gary Hamel, London Business School & Harvard Business School -
Creating this security is not a question of abstract benevolence: it is a concrete managerial responsibility. Accept uncertainty. Tolerate intelligent error. Clearly separate the failure of a project from the value of a person.
Philippe Aghion talks about it at the macroeconomic level. In the field, in innovation conferences as well as in creativity conferences, we see the immediate effects: without this climate of trust, organizations self-censor. And innovation is becoming an empty word.
Innovating is creating a climate, not a slogan
We can multiply plans, incentives, and discourses on innovation. As long as the right to fail is not really embodied, nothing changes in depth.
Innovation is not an injunction.
It is an environment to be built.
