Creating The Ambidextrous Organization

How Leaders Jump the Curve and Make

Change Happen!

• John Pisapia, Professor

Florida Atlantic University

Founder, SLN

Access the paper here

3/26/2015 Pisapia, J. 2009. The Strategic Leader

Whadda we going to do today?

Get on the Same Page

Review the Power of the Curve

Building an Ambidextrous TrustBridge

Understand the Difference of being Mission Focused and Opportunity Focused

How Lead by being Mission Focused

How to Lead by being Opportunity Focused

3/26/2015 Pisapia, J. 2009. The Strategic Leader

The Power of the Curve

The Nature of Change

3/26/2015 Pisapia, J. 2009. The Strategic

Leader

W h y d o w e n e e d t o L e a d D i f f e r e n t l y ?

The Power of the Curve

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Disruptive Innovation

The Strategic Leader Network

Mind The Gap

3/26/2015 Pisapia, J. 2009. The Strategic Leader

The Lessons of the Curve

In the Gap, we must be Ambidextrous!

3/26/2015 Ian McCarthy 2015

• Pursue two different modes of leading and learning:

1. Exploitation = using current resources and capabilities in an efficient and reliable fashion to head in the same direction

2. Exploration = searching for, acquiring and developing new resources and capabilities to go in a new direction

3/26/2015 Ian McCarthy 2015

AMBIDEXTERITY

EXPLOITATION EXPLORATION

Follow the rules and drive out the variance

and slack.

Break the rules and promote variance and

slack.

Focus on serving existing customers and

their needs.

Serve new customers with new needs.

Manage and refine existing competences. Develop and lead new competences.

Optimize the organization for existing rules. Develop new organization system with new

rules.

Make money now. Make money later.

3/26/2015 Ian McCarthy 2015

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

Exploitation Exploration

Lon

g te

rm p

erf

orm

ance

Low

Hig

h

Mode of Leading and Learning

• Premise: Organizations that attain an appropriate balance between exploration and exploitation will achieve superior performance over time.

• ‘Balance’ does not mean 50% exploitation and 50% exploration. It depends on the rate and direction of change.

The Minds we Need

3/26/2015 Pisapia, J. 2009. The Strategic Leader

I n t h e G a p !

Unfortunately, “We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”

“Think Different”

“Think Differently”3/26/2015

In the Gap we need :

A mind that is curious, flexible, and wise AND

The Thinking skills that make it possible to recognize

• Patterns,

• Make sense out of seemingly unrelated information.

• Enable us to switch from a strategic mindset -“Why and What” - to a tactical mindset -“How and When” - in a rapid and iterative process when appropriate.

Pisapia, J. 2009. The Strategic Leader3/26/2015

The Genesis of Strategic Thinking

Causal ReasoningAnalytical

Critical

Linear

Strategic Thinking

Analytical

Critical

Synthetic

Integrative

Adaptive

Innovative

Creative ReasoningAdaptive

Integrative

Innovative

To Take the Strategic Thinking Questionnaire (STQ)

3/26/2015 Pisapia, J. 2009. The Strategic Leader

Picture This

Pisapia, J. 2009. The Strategic Leader3/26/2015

Cre

ativ

e R

ea

so

nin

g

Causal Reasoning

High

HighLow

S t ra te g i c T h i n k i n g

Managerial Thinking

Entrepreneurial Thinking

3/26/2015 Pisapia, J. 2009. The Strategic Leader

Pisapia, J. 2009. The Strategic Leader3/26/2015

Thinking is not enough

The ability to think is a necessary

condition for effective leadership.

“However, Leadership must inevitably be

performed through action, not cognition”

(Denison et al. (1995, p. 524).

We have a Plan!!

3/26/2015 Pisapia, J. 2009. The Strategic Leader

Now What?

We have a Plan – Now What

The Strategic Leader 17

Making it Happen!

Pisapia, J. 2009. The Strategic Leader

Mission Focus

Opportunity Focus

Leadership Behavior

Entrepreneurial Behavior

We Have a Plan

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Here is One Way!

Mission FocusedPisapia, J. 2009. The Strategic Leader3/26/2015

Definitions

Leader

1. A person who influences a group of people towards the achievement of a goal.

2. A person who produces change and movement, establishes direction, aligns people and structures, and focuses on results.

Leadership1. Leadership is a process

of social influence which maximizes the efforts of others, towards the achievement of a goal.

2. Leadership is the process of persuasion or example by which an individual induces a group to pursue objectives held by the leader and shared by followers.

3/26/2015 Pisapia, J. 2009. The Strategic Leader

Picture This

Pisapia, J. 2009. The Strategic Leader3/26/2015

The SL Method (SLM)

What is going on here?

What needs to happen here?

How do we make it happen?

How do we keep making it happen?

Here is Another Way!

Opportunity FocusedPisapia, J. 2009. The Strategic Leader3/26/2015

Definitions

Entrepreneur1. A person who starts a

business and is willing to risk loss in order to make money.

2. A person who takes an idea, product or service and does whatever is necessary to introduce it to the marketplace where it can produce revenue.

EntrepreneurshipEntrepreneurship is the pursuit of opportunity without regard to resources currently controlled.

(Howard Stevenson Harvard professor, 1975)

Entrepreneurship involves the nexus of three phenomena: The presence of an opportunity, and enterprising individuals Who can ‘see it’ and are capable enough to respond it to it, Irrespective of existing resources (Shane & Venkataraman, 2000, p. 218

3/26/2015 Pisapia, J. 2009. The Strategic Leader

TO ‘SEE IT’, YOU MUST BE ABLE TO IDENTIFY

NEW MEANS-ENDS RELATIONSHIPS.

“OPPORTUNITY” implies an offering that is

novel in one or more of four ways:

1. Pioneering a truly innovative

product;

2. Devising a new business model;

3. Creating a better or cheaper version

of an existing product; or

4. Targeting new sets of customers.

3/26/2015 Pisapia, J. 2009. The Strategic Leader

3/26/2015 Pisapia, J. 2009. The Strategic Leader

Managerial Thinking

Strategic Thinking Entrepreneurial Thinking

Managerial Role Predict what will happen next, target individuals who can help them.

Navigate by focusing on their identity, knowledge, and relationships.

Pursue ideas and push through reality to create new opportunities.

Guiding Question What SHOULD I do?

What CAN I do and SHOULD I do it?

What CAN I do?

Outcome Share in existing market.Outcomes are fixed.

Shares in existing markets or creating new markets based on opportunities that arise.

Creates new market.Outcomes are not fixed or limited.

Ideas on Profit/Loss Focus on defined strategies to maximize returns

Focus on maximizing returns and affordable loss.

Focus on affordable loss.

Ideas on Competition Focus on analyzing competition in red ocean.

Focus on both analyzing competition, finding blue oceans, and creating strategic alliances.

Focus on creating strategic alliances and finding blue oceans.

3/26/2015 Pisapia, J. 2009. The Strategic Leader

Managerial Thinking

3/26/2015 Pisapia, J. 2009. The Strategic Leader

M1

GOAL

M2

M3

M4

M5

Entrepreneurial Thinking

3/26/2015 Pisapia, J. 2009. The Strategic Leader

O1

O2

O3

O4

O5

Making something out of Nothing by using Creative Reasoning to Imagine numerous possibilities with the means available.

3/26/2015 Pisapia, J. 2009. The Strategic Leader

The Behaviors that Drive Entrepreneurial Action

• Risk Taking - the willingness to take bold actions by

committing resources to new projects in the pursuit of an

opportunity even when the project has an uncertain

outcome.

• Innovativeness - the willingness to support new ideas,

novelty, creative processes, and experimentation which may

result in opportunity recognition, resource allocation, new

products, technological leadership, and services.

• Pro-activeness - the ability to anticipate future

environmental changes and demand, find and exploit

opportunities, and act upon them by launching new products,

services, and technologies ahead of competitors. 3/26/2015 Pisapia, J. 2009. The Strategic Leader

3/26/2015 Pisapia, J. 2009. The Strategic Leader

The Aim is to become more enterprising / entrepreneurial

The Entrepreneurial Method Sarasvathy, 2001, p.20

• Assess your means! Who are you? What do you know a lot about? Who you know.

• Be means driven rather than goal driven. What can you do with the means available?

• Invest what you can afford to lose at each step. Limit downside potential. Evaluate opportunities based on whether the downside is acceptable, rather than on the attractiveness of the predicted upside.

• Find the others and Share the Risk , secure pre-commitments, and Co-create the future.

• Embrace and leverage surprises rather than remain tethered to existing goals. Serendipity and surprise are good.

• Focus on things you control - means, processes.

3/26/2015 Pisapia, J. 2009. The Strategic Leader

3/26/2015 Pisapia, J. 2009. The Strategic Leader

Be Means Driven

Assess your Means

Find Committed Partners

Embrace Serendipity

Strategic Thinking

Risk Taking

Proactiveness

Affordable Loss

Innovativeness

Putting it all together

Focus on what you control

3/26/2015 Pisapia, J. 2009. The Strategic Leader

3/26/2015 Pisapia, J. 2009. The Strategic Leader

Want More?jpisapia@fau.edu

• Pisapia, J. (2009). The strategic Leader: New tactics for a globalizing world. Charlotte: NC.

Information Age Publishing

• Join one of SLN's Global Learning Communities!

3/26/2015 Pisapia, J. 2009. The Strategic Leader