The Eagles That Never Soar

On my family’s farm, we had a series of conveyors that fed the cows.  Twice a day, every single day, they had to run. They were old. They were worn.  And something was always wrong —a chain would stretch, a paddle would crack, the motor would overheat.

But we’d fix it, because replacing it wasn’t an option.  Cash flow on a dairy farm is razor thin—there’s no line item in the budget for “new conveyor.”  

So you patched it, welded it, rewired it, and kept it running because fifty cows don’t care what your bank account looks like.  They need to eat.  Twice a day.  Every day.

Then one morning, aconveyor quit.  Not a slow fade—it just stopped.  And when the conveyor stops, you don’t get to take the day off.  

The cows are standing there, waiting.  You’re scrambling with forks and wheelbarrows, trying to hand-feed fifty head while figuring out how to get it running again.  It’s not an inconvenience.  It’s a crisis.

I remember standing there thinking: we knew this was coming.  We just didn’t want to face it.

That’s the pattern I see everywhere now—not just on farms, but in businesses, leadership teams, and boardrooms.  We keep fixing what’s broken instead of asking whether it’s time for something new.  Not because we’re dumb.  Because familiarity feels safe.

I spoke to Tony, a member of the IDL Roundtable, about this yesterday.  He shared he was reading a book about redesigned capital expenditures and applying it to his family's dairy operation.

As he shared, the safest option most people choose is actually the path to business death.

Bruce Vojak shared with me that safe is often the most dangerous place to be.  

Bruce is a leading authority on strategic innovation who has spent decades studying why mature companies fail to renew—and how the ones that survive do so by identifying a different kind of leader.  

Not the loudest voice in the room or the highest title on the org chart, but the person who sees what nobody else sees yet.  He calls it a “people view of innovation.”  And it changed the way I think about what holds organizations—and the people inside them—back.

The Things We Hide - Moment

In The Things We Hide, I write about the belief cycle—how our beliefs drive our thoughts, our thoughts drive our actions, and our actions drive our results.  When the engine is running on fear, the results will always reflect it.

Bruce’s work put that framework on full display.  He shared stories of leaders who knew change was needed but dug in their heels anyway.  Not out of malice—because their identity was tied to the way things had always been done.

I recognize it in myself.  For years, I hid behind competence.  

Being the Swiss Army knife—the guy who could do everything—was my identity.  Any suggestion that I should let go of something felt like a suggestion that I wasn’t needed.

That’s the belief underneath the behavior: If I let go of what I’m known for, who am I?

When our identity is built on what we do rather than who we are, any change to what we do feels like a threat to who we are.  That’s what we hide.  

Not that we’re resistant to change, but that we’re afraid of what we’ll find on the other side of it.  

Bruce found that the best innovators are deeply motivated to serve—they’re not chasing titles or protecting turf.

Serve the business.  The customers, employees, and shareholders. Not one before or more importantly than the other.

These innovators see a problem, follow the pattern, and move—even when it means stepping away from what’s comfortable.  

The shift isn’t about being braver.  It’s about building an identity rooted in something deeper than a title, a role, or the way things have always been.

Podcast

Bruce Vojak is an engineer by training, a researcher by career, and an innovation evangelist by calling.  He spent over a decade studying serial innovators inside large organizations—the people he describes as “the most important people you’ve never heard of.”  

He’s the author of two books published by Stanford University Press and founder of Breakthrough Innovation Advisors, where he helps mature companies confront the question they’ve been avoiding: what comes next?  What makes Bruce different is that he doesn’t start with process or structure.  He starts with people.

Here are three key focus points from my conversation with Bruce:

1. Fear Is the Silent Killer of Innovation

Most companies don’t fail at innovation because they lack ideas.  They fail because fear drives misalignment—fear of losing influence, wasting investment, or admitting the current path has an expiration date.  Bruce shared the story of a quality manager who dug in his heels when renewal was on the table—not out of malice, but out of an unspoken fear that change would make his role irrelevant.  Until leaders name the fear driving the resistance, no amount of strategy will move the needle.

2. Innovation Is a Human Act—Not a Process

Bruce’s “people view of innovation” is built on a 12-year study that found the best innovators aren’t process followers—they’re pattern-seers.  He told the story of Nancy Dawes at Procter & Gamble, who helped turn a failing brand into a billion-dollar success.  When asked how she knew what to do, she said, “I see dead people”—meaning she could see trends before they materialized.  These innovators aren’t usually on the org chart.  The best companies find them, nurture them, and, as Bruce put it, “let the birds fly.”

3. It’s Not Too Late Until You’ve Given Up

When is it too far gone to innovate?  Bruce’s answer was striking: companies aren’t too far gone when the money runs out—they’re too far gone when they stop asking the question.  He described three paths at maturity: extend, exit, or renew.  The ones that renew don’t necessarily make massive investments—they start by simply kicking the tires, treating innovation as an insurance policy for the future.  Bruce tells resistant leaders: stop thinking of it as a big gamble.  A small investment in asking the right questions can uncover opportunities nobody is following.  But the ones that say “there’s nothing there” without ever truly looking?  As I told Bruce, it’s not a financial death first—it’s an ideological one.  And by the time the financials catch up, it’s too late.

Bruce said something that stuck with me: he respects people who are honorable in these moments.  Not people who always make the bold choice, but people who are honest about the choice they’re making.  That’s where trust lives—and where organizations quietly die when it’s absent.

See It Live — The IDL Summit, May 7–8, Spokane

The Impact Driven Leader Summit on May 7–8 in Spokane, WA, isn’t a conference where you sit in the back and take notes.  It’s 120 leaders in a room, telling the truth—about fear, identity, insecurity, and what it actually takes to lead from the inside out.

Nikki Barua, Dr. Abbie Maronó, Joe Delagrave, and I will bring four perspectives across two days in one room, where nothing gets hidden.

General Admission is $499.  VIP is $1,999 and includes a private dinner with the speakers and a deeper, more personal experience.  Seats are limited to 120.  If you’re ready to stop holding on and start leading forward, I’d love to see you there.

Get your tickets: idlsummit.com

Did you catch this podcast? If not, listen to it here.