Harnessing Generative Superpower: Future-Proofing Organizations for Emerging Challenges
Summary
I’ve come to recognize the importance of fostering a generative mindset within organizations to prepare for future challenges. Focusing inward to develop resilience and adaptability is crucial. This perspective aligns with my observations of colleagues transitioning from research to coaching, finding that personal growth can drive broader change. Through various projects, I’ve seen how effective co-creation and challenging existing biases can lead to innovative strategies. These experiences have shown me that nurturing these qualities in both individuals and organizations is essential for navigating the complexities of the future.
“This article is particularly useful for business leaders, managers, and organizational development professionals. It provides insights into how fostering a culture of continuous learning and resilience can help organizations stay ahead in an ever-evolving landscape. By understanding and implementing these principles, they can better prepare their teams for the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.
“We can choose to operate from a closed mind, closed heart, and closed will , or we can choose to operate from an open mind, open heart, and open will. Accordingly, our actions give rise to a social field of self-destruction (absencing) or of collective creativity (presencing).”
U-School for Transformation by Presencing Institute
Inspiration from a Longtime Friend
This article was triggered by my conversation with Michael McKay. When I first met Michael 16 years ago, he was a senior manager of cross-organizational innovation at Nokia. He was simultaneously pursuing a graduate degree in Concept Making at the 180 Academy in Middelfart, Denmark, where I was one of the founding faculty members. Today, as the Vice President of Digital Products at Novo Nordisk, he is responsible for fostering a culture of collaboration and continuous learning to deliver solutions that impact lives and reach millions of patients worldwide. Michael has known me as his teacher, peer, and friend for almost two decades.
During our catch-up call two days ago, we talked about the changing mindsets in the industry towards research that informs disruptive innovations, particularly AI. I asked Michael, “You have known me for so long. What do I have to offer to the changing marketplace of today?”
Michael was quick to respond, “Your Generative Superpower.” He suggested that all these years my services were focused outward – helping our clients understand people, cultures, and change. Now it was time to look inward. You can help organizations develop “future-proof” mindsets and resilience.
Organizations are not prepared for the emerging future. They will need to nurture new competencies in their people to help them recognize and harness the opportunities the future will bring. Acquiring these competencies will require changes in the way people think, feel, and adjust to change.
Shifting from External to Internal Focus
It occurred to me that in recent years several of my friends in the design research industry have switched careers from researching the world to helping their clients look inward. They chose a coaching career. I remembered my conversation with one of them. He said, “All these years I was trying to change the world through design research and strategy. When I realized that I could change the world more effectively one person at a time, I decided to become a coach.”
I started thinking, “If I were a coach, how would I prepare a client to benefit from my coaching?” I would urge them to first have a clear intention to change, be open to challenges, become curious about possibilities, gather determination to persist through adverse conditions, and develop resilience to bounce back from setbacks.
I started thinking about different client engagements we have had over the years and if and how Michael’s suggestion would help me bring value to our clients. I decided to tap into my own experience of evangelizing co-creation mindsets.
The Importance of Co-Creation Leadership
I recalled a conversation I had with Curtis To from Ford Motor Company in 2008. I was facilitating a workshop on “Innovation through Co-Creation” at Wayne State University in Detroit. It was sponsored by the Executive PhD program of the Industrial Systems and Engineering department. The workshop was attended by representatives of various industries from the state of Michigan. During the Q&A, Curtis asked me, “What level of organizational structure should co-creation be led from, in order to ensure its effective implementation?”
My response was, “An important consideration when assigning responsibility for managing co-creation in an organization is that co-creation is all about collaboration and cooperation. The decisions need not be made through a traditional top-down command structure. Management of this process needs an effective catalyst as opposed to a leader in a position of power. From that perspective, the person who leads co-creation should have the following qualities:
- Conviction: This person must firmly believe in the democratic essence of the co-creation mindset and the generative power of dialogue and collective synthesis.
- Conviviality: This person should be able to champion co-creation in the organization and manage conversations without ego getting in the way. They should be able to create an atmosphere conducive to co-creation. Conviviality describes an atmosphere or situation characterized by warmth, friendliness, and a sense of shared enjoyment. It often refers to social gatherings where people come together to eat, drink, and have lively conversations, fostering a cheerful and welcoming environment for all. The concept emphasizes the value of creating strong bonds and building a sense of community through shared experiences and engaging interactions.
- Constancy: Being a catalyst of co-creation is not an easy task. Faced with numerous challenges in bringing people on board, the facilitator of co-creation must be persistent. They should be able to communicate without fear of power. Insecurity does not hold this person back. Constancy means to remain steady, unchanging, or faithful to a cause, purpose, or belief, much like persistence. It suggests a sense of unwavering commitment and determination in the face of challenges or obstacles. Such persistence can sometimes annoy people. However, this person is liked and therefore is able to challenge people’s beliefs, preconceived notions, and stereotypes without the risk of being shunned.
Overcoming Cognitive Biases
All these years our clients have come to us to either test their hypotheses, validate an idea, or study an unfamiliar demographic, behavior, or culture. They asked us to study the behaviors they want to reshape in order to disrupt established business models using the innovative technologies they were developing.
Very rarely would a client come to us with a request to challenge and disrupt their own beliefs, though working with us they always experienced the discomfort of their beliefs being challenged. Some clients welcomed the belief-shattering insights, some tolerated them, and a few found them hard to believe.
Though during briefing meetings clients often told us they were open to unexpected outcomes, in reality, the insights that supported their hypotheses were pursued more enthusiastically than those that challenged their core beliefs, rebuked their stereotypes, or disproved their hypotheses. Helping people overcome their cognitive biases is an integral part of the job of a catalyst of co-creation.
Jeff Desjardins, editor-in-chief of Visual Capitalist, explains cognitive bias: “Science has shown that we tend to make all sorts of mental mistakes, called ‘cognitive biases,’ that can affect both our thinking and actions. These biases can lead us to extrapolate information from the wrong sources, seek to confirm existing beliefs, or fail to remember events the way they actually happened!”
Future-proofing an organization must, therefore, involve helping people recognize and overcome their cognitive biases.
Future-proofing involves protecting the organization from the tension between the natural instinct to preserve the status quo and the need to adapt to the ambiguity, complexity, and chaos of the emerging future.
Applying Future-Proofing Strategies
About twenty years ago, American companies were preparing to harness the opportunities to expand their business in emerging markets. Recognizing that consumer behavior and cultures in these countries were distinctly different from those in the more familiar western markets, Motorola decided that their leadership needed to align with the ground realities and imagination of these markets.
SonicRim was approached by Motorola to lead an in-field ideation project where middle and senior-level leadership of the company could observe, interpret, and ideate opportunities for creating value for target consumers in India. Until that time, SonicRim had conducted close to ten global exploratory projects in the US, Europe, China, Brazil, and Mexico for Motorola and had managed a global ethnographic panel in about eight countries for 14 months. From these projects, Motorola had recognized SonicRim’s unique approach to helping clients tap into local knowledge and discover pointers to the emerging future.
About 24 designers, engineers, and marketing/business strategy executives spent a whole week visiting people and places in three different tiers of Indian cities, small towns, and villages. Every day ended with an informal debrief and every morning began with clustering observations on the walls of a makeshift “war room” in the hotel. The experience helped challenge preconceived notions and stereotypes about India and helped build visceral memories that Motorola executives could tap into for several months (and possibly years) as they developed strategies for India back in the headquarters. After our return to the US, the SonicRim team synthesized the insights gathered from the in-field ideation sessions and conducted a workshop with about 40 executives to generate conversations about how to be prepared for a future that was emerging in resurgent India. I would say our collaboration with Motorola on this project can be a perfect example of what Michael McKay described as using our generative superpower to help a client develop future-proof resilience.
Lessons from the Fisher: Awareness, Preparedness, and Resilience
This article is not about predicting the future; it is about being prepared for the future. Think of yourself as a fisher and your organization as a boat headed toward the horizon.
Your primary objective is to catch fish. A fisher needs the right mindset, methods, and tools to navigate the boat and return to shore with a bounty of fish. Fishers are not preoccupied with predicting the future. Over time, they gain awareness of the behavior of the environment, the ocean, the sky, and the fish. They are prepared for turbulence that may appear. Just like the fisher, the crew of an organization needs awareness, preparedness, and resilience to navigate the waters.
Therefore, future-proofing involves following the fish while knowing how to interpret and respond to the signs of changes in the environment.
Conclusion
“The single most fundamental error of the last three decades is to try and design an idealised future state rather than working the evolutionary potential of the here and now, the adjacent possibles — it is impossible to gain consensus in the former, easier in the latter”
Dave Snowden, Creator of Cynefin Framework
Reflecting on the insights gained from my conversation with Michael McKay and years of industry experience, it is evident that the key to future-proofing organizations lies in fostering a generative mindset. By focusing inward and developing resilience, companies can better navigate the complexities and uncertainties of the future. The shift from traditional research to a coaching approach underscores the importance of nurturing individual growth and overcoming cognitive biases. Effective leadership in co-creation and a commitment to continuous learning are crucial for organizations to adapt and thrive. The successful collaboration with Motorola exemplifies how tapping into local knowledge and challenging preconceived notions can lead to innovative strategies and long-term resilience. As we move forward, embracing these principles will enable organizations to harness their generative superpower and stay ahead in an ever-evolving landscape.
