Let's talk Transformation : The business leaders podcast #44 Thinking Wrong about transformation with Greg Galle
"94% of CEOs are dissatisfied with innovation in their organisation and COVID has accelerated the need for the executive layer to understand the nature of change."
Greg and I delve into the world of challenging our own mental models and thinking differently about transformation. How can we equip ourselves and organisations for sustainable change and changing perspective on what’s possible. We discuss inclusion and the strength of different perspectives, as well as designing a more discovery driven process through curiosity, experimentation and continual learning.
Design starts with curiosity, but how do you embed this way of thinking into an organisation’s culture ? We discuss the Minimum Viable Environment for sustaining innovation, as well as the different skills needed to scale such an approach post pandemic.
Greg shares his structured methodology, his wealth of experience and insight from his Think Wrong methodology and from working with organisations big and small across the globe .
The main insights you'll get from this episode are :
- Any approach to culture begins with human brains, using neural patterns to make the impossible possible and overcoming neurological, biological and cultural barriers. Once disrupted, organisations can establish solid foundations based on shared toolkit, languages and frameworks.
- We must equip entrepreneurs / innovators, train management and give the executive layer the tools to provide governance and oversight; alignment from executive to team level and excitement throughout the organisation are the prerequisite for successful execution. The challenges here can be encapsulated in the ‘super seven questions’:
1. Is there a strategic fit? (stated goals and strategies)
2. Is there a portfolio fit? (legal/compliance)
3. Is it wanted? (validated / appetite)
4. Is it doable? (technically, culturally, legally)
5. Is it worth it? (impact/value, desirability, human currency)
6. Does it represent an affordable loss?
7. Is it creating option value for us as an organisation? (exit value)
- Designers are taught to focus on the user, understand the need, iterate, prototype and test, which has more in common with scientific than business thinking [cf. design thinking]. In this regard, preparing for the predictable is not as helpful as preparing for the unpredictable and so the metric (for training) must change.
- In discovery-driven development, design becomes part of strategic thinking. (Intuition-, heart-, eyes- and gut-driven!) designers must find a way of making money from creativity and use it to drive positive change.
- Having a mix of people is better than doing it yourself. What does it mean to be human? We connect through shared experiences, but our own experiences are woefully insufficient to design for others.
- We must be good observers and have empathy to understand what others are experiencing, and structure, rigor and discipline complement this creativity. Design starts with curiosity but how do we embed it into a culture?
- How do we transform a culture? Culture is an outcome, not an input. A culture of operation does not equal a culture of innovation, and very few organisations can articulate what the belief system is for governing to create what comes next.
- 94% of CEOs are dissatisfied with innovation in their organisation and COVID has accelerated the need for the executive layer to understand the nature of change. Conversations around what we loved and loathed about work pre-pandemic provide an opportunity for organisations to reset, with some being forced to change to survive.
- We must shift from providing a service to teaching a methodology so that we can all contribute to making the world a better place. We must use creative impulses to create change and scale impact, adopt a mindset to try and fail, learn fast rather than fail fast and embrace unexpected outcomes.
- What is the minimal viable system to prove we should try? We must think about the people, the process and the platform and build a system from there, with accompanying rules. It is also helpful for an organisation to have portfolios and endeavour to close the skills gap around managing in uncertainty (i.e. incorporate agile and scrum expertise).