“Whether tensions ultimately harm or fortify an organization depends on how they’re addressed, and thus, in many instances, whether they’re anticipated.”

Organizations must pivot and embrace a strategic reorientation to manage tensions.

“A well-designed purpose brand functions like a compass for both customers and company staff. It guides customers to the products that will do the job they need done.”

Integrate marketing and branding with your product development when creating purpose brands.

“Introducing new-to-the-world innovations and fundamentally disruptive ideas requires an approach that embraces the wisdom of ignoring, instead of deferring to, the data.”

Disruptive innovation may require ignoring data.

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Be systematic and focused during opportunity selection and disciplined during execution.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Don’t simply strive for differentiation in new markets; borrow from your rivals.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Disruptive innovation may require ignoring data.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Leverage feedback from diverse sources to overcome uncertainty.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Simple rules help teams navigate complexity and uncertainty with agility.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Consumers want novelty, but only if you make it feel familiar.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Integrate marketing and branding in your product development when creating purpose brands.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Organizations must pivot and embrace a strategic reorientation to manage tensions.</li></ul>

Productive Tensions

“Simple-rule heuristics are useful because they help leaders negotiate the fundamental tension between efficiency and flexibility.”

Simple rules help teams navigate complexity and uncertainty with agility.

“History demonstrates that people are more accepting of novelty when it is anchored in familiarity – in something that is widely known or widely used.”

Consumers want novelty, but only if you make it feel familiar.

“Intensified focus and discipline during opportunity selection, achieved through sequencing, can promote flexibility during opportunity execution. By contrast, lack of discipline during selection can constrain learning and adaptation.”

Be systematic and focused during opportunity selection and disciplined during execution.

“Using crowds – or the people around us – to generate solutions is an effective way to overcome the inherent limitations of individual cognitive processing, particularly in entrepreneurial settings where leaders must make swift decisions in the face of uncertainty.”

Leverage feedback from diverse sources to overcome uncertainty.

“Leaders innovating in new markets resemble children in that there is much they don’t yet know. They operate in utterly strange but fascinating environments, where discovery and surprise are a constant.”

Don’t simply strive for differentiation in new markets; borrow from your rivals.

How Every Leader Can Tackle Innovation’s Toughest Trade-Offs (Management on the Cutting Edge)

How leaders can recast innovation’s toughest trade-offs—efficiency vs. flexibility, consistency vs. change, product vs purpose—as productive tensions. Why is leading innovation in today’s dynamic business environment so distressingly hit-or-miss? More than 90 percent of high-potential ventures don’t reach their projected targets. Surveys show that 80 percent of executives consider innovation crucial to their growth strategy, but only 6 percent are satisfied with their innovation performance. Should leaders aim for Steve Jobs-level genius, shower their projects with resources, or lean in to luck and embrace uncertainty? None of the above, say Christopher Bingham and Rory McDonald. Drawing on cutting-edge research and probing interviews with hundreds of leaders across three continents, in Productive Tensions Bingham and McDonald find that the most effective leaders and successful innovators embrace the tensions that arise from competing aims: efficiency or flexibility? consistency or change? product or purpose? Bingham and McDonald spotlight eight critical tensions that every innovator must master, and they spell out, with dozens of detailed examples of both success and failure, how to navigate them. How do you excite customers about a product they’ve never imagined? When is it wise to accept what the data is telling you, and when should you ignore the data and plow forward anyway? How can you maintain stakeholders’ trust and support during radical unforeseen course corrections? Bingham and McDonald guide readers through innovation’s thorniest tensions, using examples drawn from the experience of organizations as varied as P&G, Instagram, the US military, Honda, In-N-Out Burger, Slack, Under Armour, and the snowboarding company Burton.

productivity

Productivity

How leaders can recast innovation’s toughest trade-offs—efficiency vs. flexibility, consistency vs. change, product vs purpose—as productive tensions. Why is leading innovation in today’s dynamic business environment so distressingly hit-or-miss? More than 90 percent of high-potential ventures don’t reach their projected targets. Surveys show that 80 percent of executives consider innovation crucial to their growth strategy, but only 6 percent are satisfied with their innovation performance. Should leaders aim for Steve Jobs-level genius, shower their projects with resources, or lean in to luck and embrace uncertainty? None of the above, say Christopher Bingham and Rory McDonald. Drawing on cutting-edge research and probing interviews with hundreds of leaders across three continents, in Productive Tensions Bingham and McDonald find that the most effective leaders and successful innovators embrace the tensions that arise from competing aims: efficiency or flexibility? consistency or change? product or purpose? Bingham and McDonald spotlight eight critical tensions that every innovator must master, and they spell out, with dozens of detailed examples of both success and failure, how to navigate them. How do you excite customers about a product they’ve never imagined? When is it wise to accept what the data is telling you, and when should you ignore the data and plow forward anyway? How can you maintain stakeholders’ trust and support during radical unforeseen course corrections? Bingham and McDonald guide readers through innovation’s thorniest tensions, using examples drawn from the experience of organizations as varied as P&G, Instagram, the US military, Honda, In-N-Out Burger, Slack, Under Armour, and the snowboarding company Burton.

Simple rules help teams navigate complexity and uncertainty with agility.

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