The Innovation Race

8 TRANSFORM How to transform a culture for implementing innovation

Destination: The Americas

Paradox: Stability vs Flexibility

Synthesis: Grounded Flexibility

In this chapter we will have the opportunity explore the path between stability and flexibility, facing at one extreme the potential danger zone of rigidity from pessimism and/or fatalism, and at the other extreme the potential danger of a lack of reality and an inability to implement. We will learn how to plan and navigate a route through grounded flexibility that will create a culture to best fuel innovation.

Key challenge: How to build both resilience and reliability through ‘grounded flexibility’.

We are on an expedition to take Hollywood star Val Kilmer surfing, flying down the freeway with the windows down and a warm spring wind tossing our hair every which way. A native of Los Angeles, Val is best known for a string of popular films including Batman Forever, Top Gun, The Saint, The Doors and Heat. Val had decided he would like to write a movie about surfing, and he wanted to brush up on his skills and immerse himself in the surfing culture a little more. He had been connected to us for that purpose.

We ended up spending some time with Val and his girlfriend, playing tennis, having dinner and generally hanging out with a surfing crowd, as well as taking him on a few surfing expeditions to help him get into the right mode. Like a true artist, Val would become a recluse for a few days, mulling over ideas, then suddenly ...