⏳ Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 50 seconds
Hey there 👋 Felix here!
This week my brother was in town with his wife and his 2-year-old son. Playing with my nephew taught me one thing. That I can easily pass out for 12 hours. So, if you have problems falling asleep, try playing with a toddler. It works wonders. But now I’m refreshed and ready for today’s piece 🙂
Today we’re going to cover:
How social norms unconsciously influence behaviour
How norms change culture even after the people are long gone
3 ways to leverage social norms to drive innovation
👻 The Ghost of Past Norms
Steve Jobs, the guy who doesn’t need a job title, famously said, “The only thing that works is management by values.”
This is what most CEOs get wrong. They ignore the intangibles. That’s a dangerous route.
A couple of months ago, I facilitated a C-level workshop where we discussed the innovation strategy.
As part of this discussion, I planned to push my group of leaders to talk about culture as well. We all know how important it is, right?
So I wrote on the whiteboard: What’s your role as a leader? Is your reward system fostering or inhibiting a culture of innovation? And other questions that should trigger a discussion.
Their response: silence. Seriously, nobody in the room said anything.
At one point, someone started talking about open innovation, something like “We should do something with startups”. A clear form of deflection.
Another person mentioned that they have too much bureaucracy. “We should do something here”.
Again, what does that mean? I thought to myself. Almost the entire executive board is in the room, but when I ask you to think about what YOU could do to foster a culture of innovation, you change topics (and not even in a constructive way.)
What I should have said in that moment:
“If you don’t define the norms, they already exist. And right now, they are working against innovation.”
Innovation culture is not something you “have” or “don’t have”.
It is shaped every day by leadership behaviour.
And if leaders don’t understand their role in shaping norms, innovation will always stay superficial.
When people talk about company culture, what they really mean is norms.
Norms are the unwritten rules of behaviour
Visible in day-to-day actions.
They can stick around for a long time.
Sometimes it’s something said by someone who doesn’t even work at the company anymore.
I call it the ‘ghost of past norms’.
In 1961, Jacobs & Campbell conducted an experiment using the autokinetic effect, an optical illusion where a stationary light in a dark room appears to move.
Participants were placed in groups where actors intentionally gave exaggerated estimates of the light’s movement.
Over time, these actors were gradually replaced by new, naive participants.
Even after all the original actors were gone, the exaggerated estimates persisted.
This shows how social norms can survive across generations, even when the people who created them disappear.
1. Make innovation visible in the core
People follow visible behaviour, not strategy slides.
Show real experiments from the core business, not from a lab.
Share small tests, not only big wins.
Use internal channels, town halls, leadership updates.
Visibility beats perfection.
2. Turn leaders into norm carriers
Leaders must experiment themselves.
They should speak openly about uncertainty.
They must reward learning, not just outcomes.
If leaders do not model it, innovation remains an exception.
3. Remove the “special unit” signal
Isolation sends a strong message. “This is not our job”.
Distribute responsibility into line functions.
Avoid exclusive spaces.
Use existing structures instead of parallel systems.
Innovation must be part of the job, not an add-on.
If you take one thing from today’s post.
Innovation doesn’t fail due to lack of resources.
It fails because leaders don’t realise they are influencing norms, consciously or unconsciously.
How useful was today’s issue?
Your vote helps me sharpen the next one.
See you next week!
Cheers,
Felix “Reframe” Hofmann
Founder of the Psychology of Innovation