244. Embracing Tension is the Key to Innovation
At The Table with Patrick Lencioni
Patrick Lencioni
4.8 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 10 June 2025
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Are you missing out on innovation because you're avoiding discomfort? How can you embrace the tension that's required for innovation?
In episode 244 of At The Table, Patrick Lencioni and Cody Thompson explore the crucial link between tension and innovation. They argue that real creativity requires discomfort—whether from interpersonal friction or environmental urgency. Through personal stories and business examples, they offer practical ways to embrace conflict and drive change before crisis strikes.
Topics explored in this episode:
(1:14) Tension Can Be Beneficial
* Innovation is universally desired but rarely pursued.
* True creativity demands both environmental and interpersonal tension.
* Most teams avoid conflict until a crisis forces change.
(3:52) Manufacturing Tension and Creativity
* Cody discusses how companies often manufacture environmental tension to force innovation, especially when complacency sets in.
* Pat connects innovation to creativity, drawing on his experience as an author and screenwriter.
(9:17) Does Every Business Need to Innovate?
* Innovation applies to all types of companies in different ways.
* Entrepreneurs often thrive on tension, but most leaders need to learn it.
(14:15) Manufacturing Urgency
* Crises like COVID accelerate innovation by necessity.
* Teams can simulate pressure by setting rallying cries or tight timelines.
(19:24) Fear or Joy Can Drive Innovation
* A team’s willingness to engage in healthy conflict is directly tied to innovation potential.
* The best employees crave meaningful tension and will leave if it’s missing.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
* Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points That Challenge Every Company, a book by Andrew S. Grove.
This episode of At The Table with Patrick Lencioni is brought to you by The Table Group: https://www.tablegroup.com. We teach leaders how to make work more effective and less dysfunctional. We also help their employees be more fulfilled and less miserable.
At The Table is a podcast that lives at the connection between work life, leadership, organizational health, and culture. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts (https://apple.co/4hJKKSL), Spotify (https://spoti.fi/4l1aop0), and YouTube (https://bit.ly/At-The-Table-YouTube).
Follow Pat Lencioni on https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-lencioni-orghealth and http://www.youtube.com/@PatrickLencioniOfficial.
Connect with Cody Thompson https://www.linkedin.com/in/cody-thompson-a5918850.
Be sure to check out our other podcast, The Working Genius Podcast with Patrick Lencioni, on Apple Podcasts (https://apple.co/4iNz6Yn), Spotify (https://spoti.fi/4iGGm8u), and YouTube (
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Everyone is saying, hey, we are just a couple steps away from something going bad. |
| 0:06.2 | Let's not get cynical or skeptical or negative about it, but let's think about that, imagine |
| 0:11.6 | that, and take proactive steps to either prevent that or get out ahead of it. |
| 0:19.1 | Welcome to At the Table, the podcast that lives at the intersection between culture and teamwork, |
| 0:24.9 | organizational health, and leadership. I'm your host, Pat Lynchoni, joined by my trustee co-host, |
| 0:30.3 | Cody Thompson. How you doing, Cody? |
| 0:32.5 | Trusty. I'm very trustworthy, or trustee, whichever you decide. |
| 0:36.2 | Yeah, I think you're both. I don't know what |
| 0:38.0 | trustee is, but you know what's funny. I want to share this with people. We were out at the Dave |
| 0:41.4 | Ramsey-A-Romtee leadership event, which was a blast. It was out in Denver earlier. And it was so fun |
| 0:47.0 | to walk down the hallway. And people would kind of recognize me. And then they'd hear us talking. They go, oh, you must be Cody. We know your voice. |
| 0:54.8 | And now that we're doing this on video, a lot of people said, oh, yeah, we recognize you now. |
| 0:59.2 | So it's fun to have people. Your voice is famous and now so is your face. |
| 1:04.2 | Oh, thank you for that, Pat. And when I say famous, like me, mildly famous in a certain quarter. |
| 1:10.0 | Zela celebrity, you know. That's right. |
| 1:13.6 | Cody, what's the topic today? Tension and innovation. That's right. Tension and innovation. |
| 1:20.0 | Here's the thing. Every organization wants to be innovative. That's one of those words like teamwork that |
| 1:26.0 | everybody says, we want that. Nobody goes, yeah, we really don't want to be innovative. Very few organizations say that. |
| 1:32.5 | And yet, as universal as that is, it's still pretty rare. Most organizations struggle. And we've |
| 1:39.6 | been talking about this recently. And we think the reason why is because to be innovative, you really do |
| 1:48.1 | have to experience tension. And most organizations, most people, human beings, don't really |
| 1:56.3 | like the idea of having tension in their lives. And without it, you can't innovate. Innovation and |
... |
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