Iteration Beats Stagnation, Momentum as a Better Beacon Than “Progress”

What innovation leaders and teams can do when clarity is scarce, timelines are fuzzy, and forward motion is hard to come by.

Excerpt from: Figure 2: Differentiation of factors and processes influencing iteration and stagnation.

This post is part of a recurring series focused on Execution In the Arena: Project Leadership and Tactical Applications — the second pillar of the **From Here to There** game plan. How do you actually work with your people to move forward? Here, we discuss tactics, strategy, and specific aspects of the operational and functional core of reaching your destination.

My longtime mentor and Director of Orthogonal Research and Education Laboratory, Dr. Bradly Alicea, would often make a distinct remark to us in various project meetings, particularly when someone was stuck or perhaps felt uneasy about the lack of visible outputs. Momentum can be more important — or perhaps a better target, beacon, or barometer — than [visible] progress. Or put another way, iteration beats stagnation. Of course, the nature of your organization, project, deadlines, and what you have to answer to for success to be realized, will condition how this principle is applied.

Ahead, we will discuss how this principle can be used as a lens to comprehend situations, both as a manager and as a member of a team

Figure 1: At first, we may expect straight lines and linear relationships, but progress often comes in waves. Consistency, showing up, and “process” serve as better beacons than immediate results.

1. Background: The Problem Space of Arriving at a Destination

There is a fundamental tension between people’s time, attention, and ability to pursue a goal or strive for something that does not yet exist. This is an imperative and often under-emphasized aspect of all manner of innovation, research, exploration, or situations wherein what you are trying to achieve is not a matter of duplicating or reproducing something else. There is a complexity at hand, and to maintain the focus of the destination when the path to it is unclear, requires skills, literacy, and ability to communicate. The role of a “leader” or manager in this capacity, formal or otherwise, is almost as an ambassador, between the Destination and the Project Team. Diplomacy is at hand, for how the Team can create, produce, or otherwise “travel” towards the Destination, outcome, or deliverable. What’s more, the “Destination” may not be exactly where its location was determined at the very outset of the endeavor.

In essence, the role here of the manager is to not let the Destination seem too far away while indicating what incremental steps to take. Or, how to identify what steps can reasonably be endeavored for, and are worthwhile stepping on, in order to either reach the Destination, or perhaps a safe and tenable waypoint.

2. The Challenge: Everything looks perfect from far away

One of the primary challenges in this space is that a high quality final product may seem both inspiring and daunting. Even, a “minimum viable product” (MVP) itself may seem like settling, or simply not as interesting, or in lesser cases, potentially even a distraction or a bridge to nowhere.

In innovation work, it’s often not the most brilliant idea that wins — it’s the team that keeps moving.

Core idea: what looks like “progress” from afar can actually mask inertia, while smaller, imperfect steps forward build momentum and clarity.

A less pithy and more real phrasing would be: In innovation work, it’s often not the most brilliant idea that wins — it’s the team that keeps moving… or at least, keeps moving enough without painting itself into a corner or depleting its resources (including motivation).

**Continue Reading this article here**, at the From Here To There: Strategy and Mentorship for Innovators main project publication.

Originally published at https://innovationstrategymentor.substack.com.