I once watched a brilliant idea die in a meeting.
It didn’t go down in flames. It didn’t get debated. It didn’t even make it past the third sentence.
It died the quiet, slow-motion death of someone cutting themselves off mid-sentence and saying, “Never mind. It’s probably a dumb idea.”
We all nodded sympathetically and moved on.
But I couldn’t stop thinking about it for days.
What if it wasn’t a dumb idea?
What if it was the idea?
Ego Risk: Innovation’s Invisible Barrier
We talk a lot about business risk, market risk, and tech risk. But let’s talk about a more dangerous threat to innovation: ego risk.
Ego risk is the perceived psychological danger of looking stupid, being wrong, or standing out in a way that makes others question your competence. It's social, emotional, and deeply wired into our brains. It’s also absolutely lethal to breakthrough thinking.
According to Adam Grant, a huge part of untapped potential lives in the zone of ideas people don’t feel safe enough to say out loud. Not because they’re bad, but because they might make us look bad.
And here’s the paradox: the ideas that feel the riskiest to say are often the ones we most need to hear.
Innovation Demands Vulnerability (and We Hate That)
Breakthrough innovation isn’t just about being clever. It requires emotional courage. It means saying, “Here’s a half-formed thought I’m not sure about, but I think it might matter.”
It means being the first person to challenge “the way we’ve always done it.”
It means asking a question everyone else pretends they already know the answer to.
In short: it means looking stupid.
Or at least risking looking stupid.
And unless leaders actively counteract that fear, most teams will self-censor before the real thinking ever begins.
This is where Brené Brown’s insight is laser-sharp: “Clear is kind. Unclear is unkind.” Too often, we avoid hard truths or uncomfortable suggestions because we want to be polite — but politeness is not the same as innovation. Real progress often starts with messy conversations.
The Brain is Wired to Play It Safe
Social psychologists have shown time and again that our fear of social rejection triggers the same pain centers in the brain as physical injury. This isn’t just metaphorical—it’s neurobiological.
We’re biologically incentivized to stay within the pack. In prehistoric times, standing out meant getting left behind or eaten. Today, it just means you might not get invited to the next brainstorm session.
But the instinct is the same: better to be safe than insightful.
The problem? Safe doesn’t lead. Safe doesn’t invent. Safe doesn’t change the game.
Leaders: Your Culture is Teaching People What Not to Say
If your meetings are filled with nodding heads and shallow agreement, congratulations—you’ve created a psychologically unsafe environment.
When people are afraid to “look stupid,” you’ve already lost half the value of the room.
Simon Sinek reminds us that when people are given responsibility and trusted with it, they rise to the occasion. But responsibility doesn’t just mean ownership of outcomes. It means ownership of ideas. It means space to say things that might not be fully polished yet.
Adam Grant takes this further: psychological safety isn’t just “being nice.” It’s creating a culture where people can challenge, question, and dissent without fearing for their reputations.
That’s where true innovation begins.
What Can You Do About It?
Final Thought
The next time someone says, “This might be a dumb idea…”
Lean in.
Chances are, it’s exactly the kind of idea that could change everything.
If we want a culture of breakthrough innovation, we must first create a culture that’s safe enough to look stupid.
Because ego risk isn’t just killing ideas.
It’s killing the future we could have.
And that’s too high a price to pay for playing it cool.
👀 Curious how to build an ego-safe, innovation-ready team? Check out how Centered helps organizations design for real innovation:
👉 AI-Ready Teams
👉 Design Sprints