Colleagues' Support Crucial for Innovators Overcoming Worksetbacks

When new ideas meet resistance at work, what happens next often depends less on the idea itself and more on the support innovators receive from the people around them. A new study from the University of Miami Patti and Allan Herbert Business School finds that colleagues play a defining role in helping innovators push through setbacks or, conversely, abandon their efforts altogether. "Innovators really care deeply about their work," said Luke N. Hedden, an assistant professor in the Department of Management. "For most of them, it's an important part of who they are," added Hedden, lead author of a newOrganization Sciencearticle, "Tight, Loose, or Denied Holding: How Interpersonal Holding Shapes Innovators' Responses to Innovation Obstacles." "Innovators encounter setbacks all the time," he said. "It's really difficult work disrupting the status quo. Trying to improve how an organization operates can be a daunting process." Hedden and co-authors Beth Schinoff, Ned Wellman and Rebecca Blanchard closely monitored the experiences ofinnovatorsworking for a hospital system in the northeastern United States. When innovators felt stymied, leading to high emotions and disappointment, they turned to colleagues for "interpersonal holding," which provided solace and motivation.