This episode of the DevReady Podcast identifies key factors related to contemporary innovation from The Innovation Race.
In this book, he and partner Gaia Grant(PhD) take the latest academic research and present it in an accessible way. They make a compelling case for forging a sustainable future driven by innovation.
Listen to the episode to understand the importance of exploring critical questions like: Why do we innovate? Are we at risk of innovating for the sake of innovation? and, What could we be doing better? The podcast particularly explores why ambidexterity is vital in leadership.
Topics Covered:
- What is sustainable innovation?
- The 'double act' or two important leadership styles: exploration and preservation
- Need for ambidexterity - Understanding innovation tensions and managing them well
- Learning from ancient cultures
- Is AI the future?
Key Quotes from the Podcast
Where can we go to learn how to innovate effectively?
“It doesn’t matter whether you look at current companies or cultures or past cases from history. There are some key principles that you can identify, whether you go back thousands of years or come as far forward as some of the leading companies now—the principles are the same. And if we can take those principles, whether we’re big or small, we’ll be much more likely to lead long-term sustainable innovation.” (2:45 – 3:26)
Can we learn from successful innovators?
“The problem with that is we don’t read about survivorship bias. We don’t read about the companies that explored and never made it. So there might be, for every Elon Musk or Bezos or whatever, there might be hundreds of millions of people that were almost as close.” (5:25 – 5:41)
Why is it not enough to focus on breakthrough innovation?
“The big finding here is that leaders or companies that only have focused on exploration, on openness to breakthrough new ideas... they might skid off (the road), if we’re using the concept of racing down a road. And of course, the leaders that have only focused on preservation, on small incremental developments - well, these are the companies that don’t exist anymore because they got disrupted by the market.” (4:47 – 5:13)
How important is 'ambidexterity'?
“We’ve got to be really careful of survivorship bias and not just worship these gurus that seem to tell: take risks, explore, go out there, come up with breakthrough ideas. Not that it’s not important, but the real issue here is the ability to balance the ambidexterity between exploration and preservation.” (5:41 – 6:00)
What happens when leaders follow their natural bias rather than identifying the need for balance?
“Unfortunately if leaders are left unchecked, if it’s unconscious, they will not only follow their natural bias. They think it’s great because we’re all very self-confident, but they’ll tend to pick a 'yes-man' team. There’s that great story of 'make Mark happy' (where there was so much fear of Mark Zuckerberg's and of questioning his strategy). Making Mark happy cost $13 billion in 2022, because he decided he wanted to get into the Metaverse, and he literally raced off (in this new direction independently).” (8:53 – 9:26)
How can the tension between 'exploration' and 'preservation' be used to drive innovation?
“We have to acknowledge that tension is there. We have to acknowledge that tension is healthy and we have to use that tension between those that want to explore and those that want to preserve, to actually pull us forward rather than rip us apart.” (13:37 – 13:52
How do you create an aligned strategy to manage this tension, and how do you communicate it to your team?
"If innovation is (considered to be) a race, we have to make sure that as a company we take the racing line at its absolute maximum speed without skidding off the track and without hugging the left side of 'all exploration' because you won’t get round fast or the right side of your preservation1. So each leader’s job is to create a strategy, put it on a racing line, and then ask themselves: When do we need to explore? When do we need to preserve? And who’s (going to be) best at driving (this strategy)?” (20:57 – 21:28)
How can we cope with the fast pace of tech innovation?
“If you bring a new drug to the market, you’ve got to get FDA approval. If you bring a new car on the market, it needs to go through registration. Tech is moving so fast that the government and bureaucracy and the politicians can’t keep up.” (36:54 – 37:07)
How can we prepare for the future?
“Ask what type of company culture do we have? Are we typically more of an 'exploring' company or are we typically more of a 'preserving' company? What were we in the past? What are we now? What do we need to be next? (44:25 – 44:38)
Watch on YouTube the full DevReady podcast interview highlights with Andrew Grant.
