The “Not Invented Here” (NIH) syndrome is a prevalent cognitive bias or organizational mindset that occurs when individuals or groups in an organization reject external ideas, solutions, or innovations in favor of their own internal creations. This syndrome can hinder creativity, collaboration, and progress within an organization.
The Not Invented Here syndrome is a cognitive bias or organizational phenomenon in which individuals or groups within an organization show a reluctance to adopt or accept external solutions, ideas, or innovations, preferring to develop their own solutions internally, even if external options are more efficient or effective.
Origins of the Term “Not Invented Here”
The term “Not Invented Here” likely originated in the field of software development, where programmers or development teams were often hesitant to use code or solutions created by others, believing that their own code was superior. Over time, the concept expanded beyond software development to encompass various industries and organizational contexts.
Characteristics of the NIH Syndrome
The NIH syndrome exhibits several characteristic traits:
1. Resistance to External Input
Individuals or teams affected by the NIH syndrome resist external input, ideas, or innovations, even when they have been proven successful elsewhere.
2. Overemphasis on Internal Expertise
There is an overemphasis on the knowledge and expertise of internal personnel, leading to a belief that in-house solutions are always superior to external ones.
3. Inefficiency and Redundancy
Organizations plagued by the NIH syndrome often engage in redundant efforts to recreate solutions that already exist externally. This can result in inefficiency and wasted resources.
4. Lack of Collaboration
The syndrome can hinder collaboration with external partners, vendors, or experts, as internal stakeholders may be hesitant to seek or accept outside assistance.
5. Resistance to Change
The NIH syndrome can contribute to a resistance to change within the organization, as new ideas or practices from external sources are met with skepticism.
Causes of the NIH Syndrome
Several factors contribute to the emergence of the NIH syndrome:
1. Organizational Culture
Organizational culture plays a significant role. A culture that values internal expertise above all else and does not encourage external collaboration is more prone to the NIH syndrome.
2. Ego and Ownership
Individuals or teams may develop a sense of ownership and pride in their work. They may resist external input to maintain control and protect their perceived ownership.
3. Fear of Outsiders
Fear or mistrust of external entities can lead to the NIH syndrome. Some individuals or organizations may view outsiders as a threat or as lacking an understanding of their unique challenges.
4. Past Failures
Negative experiences with external solutions or collaborations in the past can foster reluctance to engage with external ideas or innovations.
5. Cultural or Industry Norms
Certain industries or cultures may have established norms that favor internal development and discourage reliance on external sources.
Consequences of the NIH Syndrome
The NIH syndrome can have detrimental effects on organizations:
1. Stifled Innovation
Organizations may miss out on valuable innovations and ideas because they are fixated on internal solutions.
2. Wasted Resources
Recreating solutions or ideas that already exist externally can result in wasted time, money, and effort.
3. Reduced Competitiveness
The reluctance to embrace external innovations can lead to reduced competitiveness in the market, as competitors may adopt external solutions more rapidly.
4. Decreased Collaboration
The NIH syndrome can hinder collaboration with external partners, limiting opportunities for growth and expansion.
5. Ineffective Problem Solving
Organizations may struggle to effectively address complex problems when they limit themselves to internal expertise and solutions.
Real-World Examples of the NIH Syndrome
The NIH syndrome can be observed in various industries and contexts:
1. Technology and Innovation
In the technology sector, companies may develop their own software or tools for tasks that could be more efficiently solved by existing external solutions. This can result in wasted resources and delayed projects.
2. Healthcare
In healthcare, medical professionals or institutions may be resistant to adopting best practices or treatments developed in other regions or countries, even when they have proven to be effective.
3. Corporate Product Development
Large corporations may resist acquiring smaller, innovative startups or technologies, believing that they can develop similar solutions internally. This can lead to missed opportunities and delays in product development.
4. Government and Public Policy
Government agencies may be hesitant to adopt successful policies or practices from other regions or countries, leading to less effective public policies and services.
5. Manufacturing
Manufacturers may choose to develop their own manufacturing processes or technologies instead of licensing or adopting proven external solutions, resulting in inefficiencies and higher costs.
Strategies to Overcome the NIH Syndrome
Overcoming the NIH syndrome requires a combination of cultural, organizational, and individual changes:
1. Cultural Shift
Foster a culture that values innovation and recognizes the value of external ideas. Encourage employees to seek external input and collaborate with external partners.
2. Leadership Support
Leaders should lead by example and actively promote external collaborations and the acceptance of external solutions.
3. Education and Awareness
Provide training and education to help employees recognize the NIH syndrome and its consequences. Make them aware of the benefits of external collaboration and innovation.
4. Reward External Collaboration
Recognize and reward employees who actively seek and embrace external innovations and ideas.
5. External Partnerships
Actively seek external partnerships and collaborations that can bring new ideas and innovations into the organization.
6. Pilot Programs
Initiate pilot programs that allow the organization to test and evaluate external solutions before committing to full-scale implementation.
7. Feedback and Evaluation
Regularly solicit feedback from employees and stakeholders about the effectiveness of external solutions and their impact on the organization.
8. Open Communication
Encourage open communication channels where employees feel comfortable sharing external ideas and innovations without fear of rejection.
Conclusion
The Not Invented Here (NIH) syndrome represents a significant challenge in organizations where internal solutions are favored over external ideas or innovations. Overcoming this syndrome requires a cultural shift, leadership support, and a commitment to valuing external input and collaboration. By recognizing the value of external solutions and actively seeking innovation from a variety of sources, organizations can foster a culture of openness and creativity that leads to greater success and competitiveness in today’s rapidly changing world.
Key Highlights:
Definition of NIH Syndrome: Refers to the reluctance of individuals or groups within an organization to adopt external ideas, solutions, or innovations, favoring internal creations instead.
Origins: Likely originated in software development, but now applies across industries and organizational contexts.
Real-World Examples: Seen in technology, healthcare, corporate product development, government, and manufacturing sectors.
Strategies to Overcome:
Cultural shift.
Leadership support.
Education and awareness.
Rewarding external collaboration.
Seeking external partnerships.
Implementing pilot programs.
Soliciting feedback and evaluation.
Encouraging open communication.
Conclusion: Overcoming NIH syndrome requires a shift in organizational culture and leadership support to value external input and collaboration, fostering a culture of openness and creativity for greater success and competitiveness.
Related Frameworks, Models, Concepts
Description
When to Apply
Not Invented Here (NIH) Syndrome
– A mindset or corporate culture that favors internally developed products, ideas, or practices over those originating externally, often to the detriment of organizational innovation and adaptability.
– Important to address in strategic planning and innovation management to overcome resistance to external innovations and improve competitive positioning.
Organizational Culture
– The values, behaviors, and shared vision that contribute to the environment of an organization. Organizational culture influences all aspects of how a company operates and how it is perceived by both internal and external stakeholders.
– Used to foster a positive and inclusive culture that embraces change and external ideas, enhancing overall corporate health and employee satisfaction.
Change Management
– The process, tools, and techniques to manage the people side of change to achieve the required business outcome. It involves minimizing resistance to organizational change through proper planning and sensitivity to concerns and needs of all stakeholders.
– Applied during organizational transitions, such as mergers, acquisitions, and technology upgrades, to ensure smooth implementation and acceptance.
Knowledge Management
– The process of creating, sharing, using, and managing the knowledge and information of an organization. It refers to a multidisciplinary approach to achieving organizational objectives by making the best use of knowledge.
– Utilized to ensure that valuable information and insights are shared within the organization and not siloed, enhancing innovation and efficiency.
Cross-functional Collaboration
– A form of teaming up where members from different organizational areas or functions come together to solve a problem or deliver a project. This collaboration can help break down the NIH syndrome by integrating diverse perspectives.
– Employed in project management and product development to leverage diverse skills and foster a culture of inclusivity and mutual respect.
Open Innovation
– An approach that promotes a broad use of both internal and external ideas and paths to market. Open innovation challenges the NIH syndrome by valuing both internal and external knowledge equally.
– Adopted in R&D strategies to enhance product pipelines, accelerate innovation, and incorporate external technological advances and consumer insights.
Silos Mentality
– A reluctance to share information with employees of different divisions within the same company. This mentality can lead to reduced efficiency and contributes to the perpetuation of the NIH syndrome.
– Addressed in organizational restructuring and team-building initiatives to encourage information sharing and holistic decision-making.
Absorptive Capacity
– The ability of an organization to recognize the value of new external information, assimilate it, and apply it to commercial ends. High absorptive capacity is critical to overcoming NIH syndrome.
– Developed through continuous learning and development programs to enhance the ability to adopt external innovations effectively.
Benchmarking
– The process of comparing one’s business processes and performance metrics to industry bests or best practices from other industries. It illustrates the benefits of learning from others and can counteract NIH syndrome.
– Implemented in performance management to identify areas of improvement and adopt practices that lead to superior performance.
Corporate Hubris
– The overconfidence sometimes displayed by companies in their own capabilities or products, often ignoring external innovations or warnings that could prevent corporate mistakes.
– Managed through leadership development and corporate governance to ensure decision-makers remain open to external inputs and humble in their strategic choices.
Convergent thinking occurs when the solution to a problem can be found by applying established rules and logical reasoning. Whereas divergent thinking is an unstructured problem-solving method where participants are encouraged to develop many innovative ideas or solutions to a given problem. Where convergent thinking might work for larger, mature organizations where divergent thinking is more suited for startups and innovative companies.
The concept of cognitive biases was introduced and popularized by the work of Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman in 1972. Biases are seen as systematic errors and flaws that make humans deviate from the standards of rationality, thus making us inept at making good decisions under uncertainty.
Second-order thinking is a means of assessing the implications of our decisions by considering future consequences. Second-order thinking is a mental model that considers all future possibilities. It encourages individuals to think outside of the box so that they can prepare for every and eventuality. It also discourages the tendency for individuals to default to the most obvious choice.
Lateral thinking is a business strategy that involves approaching a problem from a different direction. The strategy attempts to remove traditionally formulaic and routine approaches to problem-solving by advocating creative thinking, therefore finding unconventional ways to solve a known problem. This sort of non-linear approach to problem-solving, can at times, create a big impact.
Bounded rationality is a concept attributed to Herbert Simon, an economist and political scientist interested in decision-making and how we make decisions in the real world. In fact, he believed that rather than optimizing (which was the mainstream view in the past decades) humans follow what he called satisficing.
The Dunning-Kruger effect describes a cognitive bias where people with low ability in a task overestimate their ability to perform that task well. Consumers or businesses that do not possess the requisite knowledge make bad decisions. What’s more, knowledge gaps prevent the person or business from seeing their mistakes.
Occam’s Razor states that one should not increase (beyond reason) the number of entities required to explain anything. All things being equal, the simplest solution is often the best one. The principle is attributed to 14th-century English theologian William of Ockham.
The Lindy Effect is a theory about the ageing of non-perishable things, like technology or ideas. Popularized by author Nicholas Nassim Taleb, the Lindy Effect states that non-perishable things like technology age – linearly – in reverse. Therefore, the older an idea or a technology, the same will be its life expectancy.
Antifragility was first coined as a term by author, and options trader Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Antifragility is a characteristic of systems that thrive as a result of stressors, volatility, and randomness. Therefore, Antifragile is the opposite of fragile. Where a fragile thing breaks up to volatility; a robust thing resists volatility. An antifragile thing gets stronger from volatility (provided the level of stressors and randomness doesn’t pass a certain threshold).
Systems thinking is a holistic means of investigating the factors and interactions that could contribute to a potential outcome. It is about thinking non-linearly, and understanding the second-order consequences of actions and input into the system.
Vertical thinking, on the other hand, is a problem-solving approach that favors a selective, analytical, structured, and sequential mindset. The focus of vertical thinking is to arrive at a reasoned, defined solution.
Maslow’s Hammer, otherwise known as the law of the instrument or the Einstellung effect, is a cognitive bias causing an over-reliance on a familiar tool. This can be expressed as the tendency to overuse a known tool (perhaps a hammer) to solve issues that might require a different tool. This problem is persistent in the business world where perhaps known tools or frameworks might be used in the wrong context (like business plans used as planning tools instead of only investors’ pitches).
The Peter Principle was first described by Canadian sociologist Lawrence J. Peter in his 1969 book The Peter Principle. The Peter Principle states that people are continually promoted within an organization until they reach their level of incompetence.
The straw man fallacy describes an argument that misrepresents an opponent’s stance to make rebuttal more convenient. The straw man fallacy is a type of informal logical fallacy, defined as a flaw in the structure of an argument that renders it invalid.
The Streisand Effect is a paradoxical phenomenon where the act of suppressing information to reduce visibility causes it to become more visible. In 2003, Streisand attempted to suppress aerial photographs of her Californian home by suing photographer Kenneth Adelman for an invasion of privacy. Adelman, who Streisand assumed was paparazzi, was instead taking photographs to document and study coastal erosion. In her quest for more privacy, Streisand’s efforts had the opposite effect.
As highlighted by German psychologist Gerd Gigerenzer in the paper “Heuristic Decision Making,” the term heuristic is of Greek origin, meaning “serving to find out or discover.” More precisely, a heuristic is a fast and accurate way to make decisions in the real world, which is driven by uncertainty.
The recognition heuristic is a psychological model of judgment and decision making. It is part of a suite of simple and economical heuristics proposed by psychologists Daniel Goldstein and Gerd Gigerenzer. The recognition heuristic argues that inferences are made about an object based on whether it is recognized or not.
The representativeness heuristic was first described by psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky. The representativeness heuristic judges the probability of an event according to the degree to which that event resembles a broader class. When queried, most will choose the first option because the description of John matches the stereotype we may hold for an archaeologist.
The take-the-best heuristic is a decision-making shortcut that helps an individual choose between several alternatives. The take-the-best (TTB) heuristic decides between two or more alternatives based on a single good attribute, otherwise known as a cue. In the process, less desirable attributes are ignored.
The bundling bias is a cognitive bias in e-commerce where a consumer tends not to use all of the products bought as a group, or bundle. Bundling occurs when individual products or services are sold together as a bundle. Common examples are tickets and experiences. The bundling bias dictates that consumers are less likely to use each item in the bundle. This means that the value of the bundle and indeed the value of each item in the bundle is decreased.
The Barnum Effect is a cognitive bias where individuals believe that generic information – which applies to most people – is specifically tailored for themselves.
First-principles thinking – sometimes called reasoning from first principles – is used to reverse-engineer complex problems and encourage creativity. It involves breaking down problems into basic elements and reassembling them from the ground up. Elon Musk is among the strongest proponents of this way of thinking.
The ladder of inference is a conscious or subconscious thinking process where an individual moves from a fact to a decision or action. The ladder of inference was created by academic Chris Argyris to illustrate how people form and then use mental models to make decisions.
Goodhart’s Law is named after British monetary policy theorist and economist Charles Goodhart. Speaking at a conference in Sydney in 1975, Goodhart said that “any observed statistical regularity will tend to collapse once pressure is placed upon it for control purposes.” Goodhart’s Law states that when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.
The Six Thinking Hats model was created by psychologist Edward de Bono in 1986, who noted that personality type was a key driver of how people approached problem-solving. For example, optimists view situations differently from pessimists. Analytical individuals may generate ideas that a more emotional person would not, and vice versa.
The Mandela effect is a phenomenon where a large group of people remembers an event differently from how it occurred. The Mandela effect was first described in relation to Fiona Broome, who believed that former South African President Nelson Mandela died in prison during the 1980s. While Mandela was released from prison in 1990 and died 23 years later, Broome remembered news coverage of his death in prison and even a speech from his widow. Of course, neither event occurred in reality. But Broome was later to discover that she was not the only one with the same recollection of events.
The bandwagon effect tells us that the more a belief or idea has been adopted by more people within a group, the more the individual adoption of that idea might increase within the same group. This is the psychological effect that leads to herd mentality. What in marketing can be associated with social proof.
Moore’s law states that the number of transistors on a microchip doubles approximately every two years. This observation was made by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore in 1965 and it become a guiding principle for the semiconductor industry and has had far-reaching implications for technology as a whole.
Disruptive innovation as a term was first described by Clayton M. Christensen, an American academic and business consultant whom The Economist called “the most influential management thinker of his time.” Disruptive innovation describes the process by which a product or service takes hold at the bottom of a market and eventually displaces established competitors, products, firms, or alliances.
Value migration was first described by author Adrian Slywotzky in his 1996 book Value Migration – How to Think Several Moves Ahead of the Competition. Value migration is the transferal of value-creating forces from outdated business models to something better able to satisfy consumer demands.
The bye-now effect describes the tendency for consumers to think of the word “buy” when they read the word “bye”. In a study that tracked diners at a name-your-own-price restaurant, each diner was asked to read one of two phrases before ordering their meal. The first phrase, “so long”, resulted in diners paying an average of $32 per meal. But when diners recited the phrase “bye bye” before ordering, the average price per meal rose to $45.
Groupthink occurs when well-intentioned individuals make non-optimal or irrational decisions based on a belief that dissent is impossible or on a motivation to conform. Groupthink occurs when members of a group reach a consensus without critical reasoning or evaluation of the alternatives and their consequences.
A stereotype is a fixed and over-generalized belief about a particular group or class of people. These beliefs are based on the false assumption that certain characteristics are common to every individual residing in that group. Many stereotypes have a long and sometimes controversial history and are a direct consequence of various political, social, or economic events. Stereotyping is the process of making assumptions about a person or group of people based on various attributes, including gender, race, religion, or physical traits.
Murphy’s Law states that if anything can go wrong, it will go wrong. Murphy’s Law was named after aerospace engineer Edward A. Murphy. During his time working at Edwards Air Force Base in 1949, Murphy cursed a technician who had improperly wired an electrical component and said, “If there is any way to do it wrong, he’ll find it.”
The law of unintended consequences was first mentioned by British philosopher John Locke when writing to parliament about the unintended effects of interest rate rises. However, it was popularized in 1936 by American sociologist Robert K. Merton who looked at unexpected, unanticipated, and unintended consequences and their impact on society.
Fundamental attribution error is a bias people display when judging the behavior of others. The tendency is to over-emphasize personal characteristics and under-emphasize environmental and situational factors.
Outcome bias describes a tendency to evaluate a decision based on its outcome and not on the process by which the decision was reached. In other words, the quality of a decision is only determined once the outcome is known. Outcome bias occurs when a decision is based on the outcome of previous events without regard for how those events developed.
Hindsight bias is the tendency for people to perceive past events as more predictable than they actually were. The result of a presidential election, for example, seems more obvious when the winner is announced. The same can also be said for the avid sports fan who predicted the correct outcome of a match regardless of whether their team won or lost. Hindsight bias, therefore, is the tendency for an individual to convince themselves that they accurately predicted an event before it happened.
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
