Engineering a Change Movement
On the 13th of October, what Elon Musk said he would attempt to do to capture a 23-story super-heavy booster rocket with a chopstick-like structure, became a reality. Musk has made extraordinary claims in the past, but they eventually do come to pass, even though the initial attempts may fail. But in this instance, it succeeded on its first attempt. Musk is certainly not a superhuman, and there is a method to his seemingly insane approach; he is an engineer by training and at heart. So here are four ways you can stop admiring Elon and examine if you are engineering a change movement:
1. Cause: Preach your cause despite a thousand doubts
2. Creative Vision: See comprehensively to shape a Creative Vision towards your cause
3. Culture of Trust: Attract a core circle of leaders who can lead extraordinary efforts to drive change
4. Competent Pivot: Recognising daily how you need to pivot in real terms to achieve the change you wish to see
This is the "Creative Change Cycle" I wrote about in my book. Read on in the article below.
Meanwhile in other news
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Now back to the article for Engineering a Change Movement:
1. Cause: Preach your cause despite a thousand doubts
Elon did not have an exact plan when he began his causes, but he was clear about his goals. For the space venture, he was clear about his goal to reach Mars. He talked about it with his closest business friends, who thought he was a lunatic.
Peter Thiel who founded PayPal with Elon said this at Aspen Institute:
“When Elon was building both Tesla and SpaceX in the 2000s, people thought he was just really, really crazy. Even those of us who’d worked with him at PayPal. There was this PayPal book that David Sacks and I thought of writing, and the Elon chapter was I think entitled something like ‘The Man Who Knew Nothing About Risk’ or something like this. There are all these crazy Elon stories I could tell.”
Thiel continues:
“If one of the two companies had succeeded, you would say, well, maybe he got really lucky. But when two out of two companies that people thought were completely harebrained in the 2000s - when they both succeed, you have to reassess it. Maybe the rest of us are somehow too risk averse or there’s something about risk he knows that we don’t.”
Check out that video here
One thing that is clear about changemakers like Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, and Lee Kuan Yew is that they are not easily dissuaded. You cannot ask anyone to come along with you; if you require a lot of affirmation, you have to be prepared to risk it all, to put everything out there and preach your cause even if you are alone in this; this is the first foundation of your change movement. This is why I said in my book, it is essential to find your own Everest; it is the ultimate challenge that only you can understand why you need to do this, and when you dare to raise that flag of yours, others will come along with you.
2. Creative Vision: See comprehensively to shape a Creative Vision towards your cause
Elon Musk is not the only cause-driven leader, but he is one of the few who can assess a situation comprehensively and be clear-eyed about the vision for the work ahead. After studying the space industry comprehensively, he focused on reusability as the most important driver of industrial change and to finance his cause. If he can lower costs of reaching orbit, he has a higher chance of getting to Mars.
Not many can emulate Musk's unique ability. While many companies invest in innovation, not all innovation propels a company towards its cause. Musk's laser-like focus on what truly matters is a source of inspiration. He can meticulously chart out how his principle of reusability can significantly enhance the likelihood of his eventual Mars landing.
He managed to do this by being extremely realistic about the limits of his own funds and time. He needed to know what to focus on so that it can get him the results he wanted, finance his cause, increase payloads into space, and increase the odds for success. So, the reusability of rockets to build an industrial base to finance his work which also allowed him to go the distance while in space became his singular obsession.
Listen to Elon Musk's presentation about how SpaceX will get to Mars
So, what is your one obsession or principle that you are basing on to build towards change success? Lee Kuan Yew was obsessed with making the best out of a small island, amplifying its uses, maximizing the talents of a small population base. This obsession with smallness made Singapore one of the most valuable nations on earth. So ask yourself, did you truly see your challenge comprehensively? What is the one obsession you need to work on?
3. Culture of Trust: Attract a core circle of leaders who can lead extraordinary efforts to drive change
Elon Musk will most likely fail the current criteria for the best employer award as he is a very demanding leader. He works all the time and expects his team to do so. When he first took over Twitter, he was shocked to find a culture that values time over making an impact fast. He eventually sacked most of the staff to transform the company towards the culture he desired to see. As a leader, he is unafraid to hold his core team's feet to the fire.
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The result of Musk's leadership is a team of exceptional individuals who can achieve the impossible. A recent testament to this was Jensen Huang's awe at xAI's feat of assembling 100,000 GPUs, Colossus, in just 19 days, making it the fastest supercomputer on the planet as a single cluster. Nvidia by the way became one of the most valuable company in the world for a moment. This compliment for Musk shows the level of esteem he enjoys among engineering peers.
See what Huang said here:
So the question to you is, is your core team with you on being obsessed about making an impact? If not, then it is time to reorganise and make it work.
4. Competent Pivot: Recognising daily how you need to pivot in real terms to achieve the change you wish to see
In my book, I wrote in Thread 66 of Creative Change, that Elon is so obsessed about speed of achieving change, he had the following rule for his team. It was a systematic method that has come to be known as The Elon Musk Algorithm which involve the following:
This helped his team to question and focus on what would achieve the desired impact. And if anything is no longer working either at the process level or in terms of the model, be ready to pivot and pivot immediately. This constant evaluation and readiness to pivot keeps the team engaged and proactive. Likewise, when Musk began SpaceX, he thought that being a reliable logistics company for NASA would help finance his cause. Soon, he found another more profitable route, which is to provide internet via thousands of satellites. Since he could launch these satellites himself and he had the end-to-end expertise to do so, the cost per satellite is low.
SpaceX's sky-high valuation now is actually due to the revenue opportunity in the internet satellite business. Known as Starlink, it is on track to generate a staggering $6.6 billion in revenue for 2024.
Overall, if you are cause-driven, you must constantly question every aspect to determine whether you are truly engineering a change movement.
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I am coming to Kaohsiung, Taipei, Delhi and Zagreb in December.
I will meet or catch up with changemakers in these cities as I go on a series of keynotes about Creative Change in the economy and being changemakers in these cities during December.
I am especially looking forward to catch up with the new President of 文藻外语学院 and also Prof Rey, Rey-Sheng Her at the Tzu Chi Foundation Forum, then with Prof Brian Grim in Delhi and finally with Kosjenka Duman?i? in Zagreb.
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Join us for Shape the World Summit in Rome 2025
If you are a changemaker leader and would like to meet other changemakers who lead enterprises, non-profit, and public institutions, join us next June in Rome. There are limited seats, and participation is by invitation only. We will need all confirmation by end of November as accommodation is running out in Rome.
If you are interested to come with us to Rome, you can indicate your interest here: https://consulus.com/event/shape-the-world-summit-2025-creative-leadership/
Here is the video of this year’s Shape the World Summit:
I wish you all the best in your respective ways to bring about creative change!