From Heart Medication to Revolution

How Failures Fuel Innovation

Reading time approx. 5 minutes

Good morning. Let’s kick off this Tuesday together. As always, today’s reminder: "It’s entirely possible to be rational and still wrong." Here’s today’s tool for a Chief Behavioral Officer:

How Creative Thinking Turned Setbacks into Success

Imagine working tirelessly on a heart medication for months—only to end up with a colossal failure. This is the story of chemist David Brown, who was researching a drug for angina, only to see it flop. But instead of accepting defeat, Brown made an astonishing discovery: the supposedly useless drug had an unexpected effect. And with that, Viagra was born, bringing Pfizer billions and revolutionizing the pharmaceutical industry.

Brown's story teaches us a vital lesson: failure is often just the beginning of something much bigger. How many of us face seemingly insurmountable obstacles, dead ends in our work or lives? Yet it’s precisely in these moments of "stuckness" that the spark of innovation often ignites. David Brown shows us that what appears to be a failure can actually be the start of something groundbreaking.

How does it work? Science, baby!

The ability to adapt in the face of challenges is called "pivoting." It means shifting direction based on what we’ve learned from failure—and David Brown mastered it. Studies show that rethinking problems during crisis points often leads to breakthroughs. Creativity expert Adam Alter argues that feeling "stuck" is a sign that it’s time to think differently. Just as Brown saw the unexpected potential in a failed drug, we too can uncover hidden opportunities within our setbacks.

But there’s more to the story. A powerful cognitive bias often gets in the way: functional fixedness. This bias makes it difficult to see an object or a situation beyond its original use or purpose. Brown could have easily fallen into this trap, viewing his drug only as a failure in treating angina. Functional fixedness limits our creativity, preventing us from considering alternative uses or possibilities. Overcoming this bias, as Brown did, is essential in transforming failure into opportunity.

Why is this important?

The psychology behind pivoting and overcoming biases like functional fixedness shows that our brains tend to get stuck in old ways of thinking. This bias narrows our perspective, making us focus only on what something is supposed to do, rather than what it could do. The key to success lies in breaking free from this cognitive trap and staying open to new possibilities. Focusing on the positives of failure and learning from setbacks helps expand our range of actions. In daily life, this means that every setback, whether big or small, can bring us closer to a solution—if we’re willing to adapt and challenge our initial assumptions.

And now?

What can we take away today? Start by looking at problems from a different perspective. Don’t ask why something didn’t work—ask, "What can I learn from this?" Write down three situations where you’ve faced a setback and look for a new angle. Specifically, think about how functional fixedness might have limited your options in those moments. Did you see only one way forward? Challenge yourself to identify hidden opportunities and practice resisting the urge to give up at the first sign of failure. Here’s a surprise: the key to a new solution often lies in the details we initially overlook.

Bottom line

Failures are not dead ends—they’re the beginning of something new. And be aware: functional fixedness can limit our creativity in tough situations, so we must actively challenge it.

Checklist for decision-making moments:

Chief Behavioral Officer Wanted

Where are daily management decisions still based on the myth of the purely rational human? Where can you be a Chief Behavioral Officer this week?

See you next Tuesday.

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