Opinions are like assholes, everyones got one but will they lead to your demise?

‘Opinions are like assholes everyones got one… there is great wisdom in this but I would add that opinions differ from assholes because yours should be constantly and thoroughly examined’

Tim Minchin Comedian

I have always wanted to walk into a meeting and say this as it would be hilarious. I spend most of my time in meetings about topline growth and digital transformation with the dream of visionary discussions of big existential questions. Although hilarious and doing what great comedians do put a mirror up to our behaviours. I feel it would distract from the reality of what organisations are really missing.

Organisational culture lacks questioning, exploring and experimenting with past, current and future assumptions to future proof.

There are three key areas I believe are missed in organisations that will lead to their demise. They are both a mindset for leadership and leaders throughout the organisation. As well as having the ability to be turned into methods that are crucial in determining the future of organisations and in turn the world we live in.

1.Critical thinking to evolve beyond past assumptions

Organisations are not relevant for today, let alone set up for tomorrow.

Large organisations were primarily set up decades, if not centuries ago for customers and employees with very different values and expectations of value. Every trends or future presentation highlights the acceleration of change. Yet we continue to sell a lot of products and services within systems that are not right for current audiences, let alone the future or the state of our planet. The challenge is these organisations continue to perpetuate the factory model of production line of specialists that do their jobs and don’t stop to question why.

In working across a number of organisations and countries in a world of such accelerated change. People avoid reality and fall for the convenience of perpetuating an old model. I am yet to see a culture of critical thinking developing alternative hypotheses, exploring new future scenarios or contemplating the consequences of actions or inaction. In short, organisations are not ‘constantly and thoroughly examining’ their assholes .. sorry I mean their opinions or past assumptions.

This is the underlying thread of many companies we have seen make spectacular falls from grace for their past assumptions not being relevant. I was lucky to get an ex executive of Symbian software (Nokia) share the story behind the scenes of how they saw the growth of Apple and Android. Their market leading position led them to believe they were in the best position to take control of the smart phone market. They never questioned or explored the fundamentals of their current business vs what a future outside their business might look like.

How can organisations embed critical thinking to balance todays day to day with becoming future fit?

2. Creativity for scaled impact

‘…creativity now is as important in education as literacy and we should treat it with the same status.’

Sir Ken Robinson

What a crazy couple of months it has been with all the amazing AI tools that have become accessible to anyone with internet helping accelerate augmentation of people’s work . Throughout my career I have always brought an alternative pov or way of doing things to the table. This can frustrate people because 90% of the time they just want to do it the regular way. Do you know what can also does it the regular way? Machines. #beatthemachines

We are at the tipping point of a paradigm shift. A need for new version of human creativity to offer alternatives to help endure an accelerated confluence of events from social, environmental, technological and political realms changing the fabric of society. Can we really continue to fall back on past knowledge and approaches? To take on these challenges we need new voices, perspectives and approaches to critique our current position but also create alternative leaps to deal with the ever changing environment.

Design led innovation was the silver bullet to embed creativity into organisations through a herd of positive, jeans wearing young people who were going to offer alternative approaches to drive change according to the management consultants. (I know I was one of them). These teams chased purpose to change the organisation for the better. Exploring wicked problems, training employees on design thinking, focusing on people’s needs, developing hypothesis and prototyping to learn. The hype was written on every post it note, medium post or newspaper article of CEOs jumping on the bandwagon. What happened? They had very limited strategic impact. Big projects were side lined as no one in the business would invest or take them on their balance sheet. Leadership did not understand or learn that design can be utilised to gain strategic advantage by making fundamental change to the organisation. Creativity was returned to its small box, making current things cheaper or prettier, which every designer loves.

Pepsico grew design capability over the years with a rockstar Chief Design Officer. The share price has grown consistently over the period of embracing design showing the power of bringing creativity into the organisation. Pepsi Design team a number of years ago did a speculative design project on what a world without plastic bottles could look like.(cant seem to find it ). What a wicked problem, considering 7.7 billion plastic bottles are used each year and Pepsico are a leading player in the problem. Yet their own creative thinking has not scaled any significant alternative approaches from that project even years later. This is one narrow example, but I have heard a considerable amount of stories from design teams across industries and countries that developed future proofing ideas to help transform their organisations for todays and tomorrows challenges. Yet, that creativity and passion didnt turn into real funded initiatives that drive change at scale for good of their organisation and society.

How can organisations scale the impact of positive creativity for strategic advantage?

3. Real transformational Change

People dont resist change, they resist being changed

Peter Senge

Everyone talks about change as something that happens outside them. We are now in February how are everyones new years resolutions going? Change is bloody hard. You only tend to see real change in individuals when they are really hit rock bottom or when organisations are on a burning platform (from Cigarettes to Vape just nails the metaphor). Yet change is inevitable like death and taxes. In the consulting world they shifted from change consultants of the 90/00s to ride the wave of ‘transformation’. I interpreted the word ‘transformation’ as an invitation to transform the entire organisation’s view of the value they create for now and the future. An easy start is to question your past assumptions bringing critical thinking and creativity about your future into the organisation. But I stupidly forget the missing word ‘Digital’. I assumed the exponential growth of the digital economy had led to considerable fear within incumbent organisations that would drive them into digital existential angst and question their entire business.

This is where I tripped up on my own assumptions and I had to take some of my own medicine. I had to examine my beliefs and assumptions of the goals of organisations not my hope for them (how meta). As I have tried to experiment and test in this space I have had to fundamentally change my vision to the reality of how organisations use digital transformation to be more efficient at their current approach using technology. It is not in the remit to truly transform their organisation. They want to transfer their current assumptions and behaviours into a new tech stack. Maybe that is why digital transformations tend to fail 70% of the time. As it is much easier to buy a new phone and transfer all your apps across. As opposed to taking the time to intentionally examine whether those apps are a positive use of your time now and moving into the future.

How can organisations transform their organisation to be relevant for the future beyond the techstack?

There are glimmers of hope with the onset of COVID there has been an increase in futures roles and projects looking into the future for organisations. I questions whether current futures methods and practices really address the issues highlighted above. Heres a few things to imagine.

1. Imagine if the job of the propositions team wasnt just to create new propositions but was also to create methods to be critical about the current propositions to future proof?
2. Imagine if: organisations ESG and the M&A teams created a big cash investment prize like the Carbon Removal XPrize for their own Design/Innovation/Creative team to create a solution for a relevant wicked problem.
3. Imagine if: transformation was a process that was critical and creative about the entire organisation’s vision, role in the world and value they deliver. Not just a new tech stack.

Being more critical and creative to empower change can help organisations to develop new strategic advantage for the future. It can help address some of the wicked problems or at least help them live up to their ESG goals.

How do we use this tension to empower change?