Ten Key Enabling Factors:

Hello again Humantific readers. In this post we are returning to the subject of enabling Ambidextrous organizations. Since our founding in 2002 we have been working with organizational leaders seeking to operationalize what is often referred to from a business perspective as dual engine strategy, i.e.: ambidexterity strategy.

Constant change and turbulence in the marketplace, often expressed ass VUCA translates into the need for business leaders and their organizations to simultaneously create new businesses while optimizing existing offerings. On the surface those might seem like wildly opposing, impossible to orchestrate dynamics.

More than a decade into working with organizational leaders enabling ambidexterity in teams and organizations we have learned many lessons that we share in our skill-building program.

The essential dynamics of ambidexterity have been described in numerous different ways, in many knowledge communities and across multiple business cycles spanning a 60+ year time period.

The historical literature on the subject of ambidexterity ranges from abstract theorizing to concrete and practical, from clear to extremely confused, from na?ve to realistic. By 2016 hundreds of papers and posts exist on the subject from multiple vantage points that include business administration, organizational development, organizational change-making, applied creativity, thinking dynamics, etc. Clearly some of the literature is more useful to change driving organizational leaders than others. In the business community one of the most high profile articles appeared in Harvard Business Review written by Charles O’Reilly & Michael Tushman in 2004 entitled: The Ambidextrous Organization. Other publications such as the 2010 IBM CEO Study have helped to raise awareness in the business community regarding the shift underway by many organizational leaders.

“CEOs are realizing they must think in terms of increasing overall operating dexterity. To capitalize on complexity CEOs: 

Embody Creative Leadership 

Reinvent Customer Relationships 

Build Operating Dexterity” 

IBM Institute for Business Value

Capitalizing on Complexity: Insights From The 2010 Global CEO Study

“The key to ambidexterity is the ability of the organization to sense and seize new opportunities through simultaneous exploration and exploitation…In uncertain environments, organizational ambidexterity appears to be positively associated with increased firm innovation, better financial performance and higher survival rates.”

Charles O’Reilly & Michael Tushman

Organizational Ambidexterity: Past, Present and Future 2013

From a practice perspective what we continue to find missing in the multiple streams of literature on the subject of ambidexterity is the “How to operationalize it” part. Often absent are the methodology, tools, skills, behaviors, cognitive considerations and culture building pieces. Without being conscious of it at first we found ourselves ten years ago on the front lines of the enduring operationalizing question:

How might we build dual-engine (ambidexterity) innovation capacity?

Not surprisingly the organizational leaders working with Humantific tend to be less interested in abstract academic theories and more interested in real tools, real methods that can help take an organization from point A to point B in organized and scalable ways.

In our practice the day to day operationalizing of ambidexterity has always been grounded in demonstrateable, learnable and adaptable innovation methodology. Geared for use by multi-disciplinary teams Humantific methods combine next generation practices from design thinking, strategic problem solving and visual sensemaking. We know from experience that without scalable, adaptive methods, and deep methods mastery embedded in organizations the notion of ambidexterity will remain an abstraction.

Described in some of the literature as a “mental balancing act” operationalizing ambidexterity can be one of the toughest managerial challenges requiring new forms of leadership skill. Alignment of 10 enabling dimensions spanning Goals, People and Infrastructure also helps. :-)

Thinking systemically, here are 10 key factors at the core how we do what we do:

10 Key Real World Enabling Factors

1. Leaders Seek Dual Engine Strategies: Today ambidexterity is often expressed by CEO’s as a dual-engine business objective. In a constantly changing world, CEO’s seed the need to optimize existing assets while simultaneously creating new businesses. One does not supersede the other. This is not an abstract theoretical idea but rather a deliberate strategic response to a constantly changing marketplace. In this context, how to operationalize ambidexterity, how to make it real, becomes the challenge.

2. Ambidextrous Innovation Strategy: We connect ambidextrous corporate vision and corporate strategy directly to a visualized ambidextrous innovation strategy (Think-Balance). Ambidextrous innovation strategy is about making ambidexterity real and organizing how we are going to build sustainable ambidextrous innovation capacity in our multi-disciplinary teams and throughout the organization. Different from corporate strategy, innovation strategy connects values, behaviors, tools, methods and skills to corporate objectives.

3. Ambidextrous Values & Rewards: We reexamine existing values and rewards to ensure alignment with ambidexterity (Think-Balance) objectives. No longer will convergent thinking (decision-making) be privileged or considered the highest form of value. We want to signal that the organization now values both creation of new assets and exploitation of existing assets. We embed understanding and appreciating ambidexterity (Think-Balance) in the cultural values and rewards of the organization.

4. Ambidextrous Leadership Team: We create transparency around the thinking style preferences of the leadership teams in order to visually map those preferences to the visual ambidexterity model. We add thinking style preferences to the manner in which we understand not only the leadership team but every team in the organization. We map each team to the ambidexterity (Think-Balance) model. We bring those maps into the conscious planning of the leadership team.

5. Ambidextrous Organizational Culture: We place the ambidexterity (Think-Balance) objectives at the center of organizational culture considerations. By nature ambidexterity is inclusive and we build on that empowering logic. No longer is one small group responsible for innovation. In ambidexterity innovation everyone has a role regardless of cognitive thinking style. To maximize diverse brainpower we orchestrate rather then privilege one thinking style over another.

6. Ambidextrous Innovation Methodology: We place an adaptable innovation methodology and a set of simple behaviors that everyone can learn at the center of all innovation, change and challenge related initiatives. We build basic and advanced skills in this core methodology throughout the organization. This adaptable methodology becomes the common cross-disciplinary change-making language. Mastery of the core method and related behaviors accelerates the organizations ability to adapt and change. Without core innovation methodology mastery ambidexterity remains a theory.

7. Ambidextrous Learning Program: We place a multi-level ambidexterity (Think-Balance) skill-building program at the center of continuous organizational learning. Everyone in the organization learns ambidexterity boot camp skills. A core team is skilled to advanced levels. The advanced core team is able to help others throughout the organization tackle complex change related challenges.

8. Ambidextrous Workplace Environment: We inject awareness of ambidexterity into considerations of the organizations physical and digital workspaces. Creating new assets often requires different work environments then those designed for optimizing existing assets.

9. Ambidextrous Data/Information/Insights: We inject awareness of ambidexterity into considerations of the organizations data, information and insights. Creating new assets often requires different data, information and insights then that used for optimizing existing assets.

10. Ambidextrous Internal Initiatives Mapping: We map all internal initiatives to the visual ambidexterity strategy model in order for leadership to have meaningful conversations regarding emphasis and balance in sync with changing conditions of the marketplace. We facilitate leadership discussions that focus on better understanding existing initiative emphasis as well as mapping the way forward.

The pursuit of ambidexterity capacity in teams and organizations is not a one-off event but rather requires sustainable effort. It is a heavy lift that when executed properly will have wide ranging immediate, short-term and long term impact in any team or organization rapidly accelerating ability to make sense, adapt, change and lead in a rapidly changing world.

Good luck to all.

Related:

HUMANTIFIC: Actionizing Enterprise Adaptability: Making Sense of Ambidextrous Capacity Building

Bain & Company: The Firm of the Future [Dual Engine Strategy]

Accenture: US Innovation Survey 2016: Clear Vision Cloudy Execution

Harvard Business Review: The Ambidextrous Organization

IBM: Capitalizing on Complexity: Insights from the 2010 Global CEO Study

The Ambidexterity: The Art of Thriving in Complex Environments

Organizational Ambidexterity: Past, Present and Future 2013