The Cranky Middle Manager Show #314 Lean Learning and Knowledge Capture with Todd Hudson
The Cranky Middle Manager Show #311 Serial Innovators Claudio Feser
Posted on 25. Jan, 2012 by Wayne in General, Podcast
Today Wayne Turmel talks to author Claudio Feser about why some companies innovate, some die and take their managers with them. We also talk learning Mandarin in the face of sheer terror.
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Show Notes
0:00 Welcome to the show. No dedication today because i’m pressed for time. I’m also scared because i step inside the classroom today as a learner for the first time since about 1982. Yes, I’m trying to learn Mandarin for no other reason than I’ve always wanted to learn it and it’s time I did something for my brain.
3:48 The quote of the week is from Eugene S Wilson. Education is both a quest and a requirement. The quest part is infinitely more intriguing.
4:15 Welcome McKinsey Director Claudio Feser to the show. He’s the author of “Serial Innovators- Firms That Change The World”. Innovation is a crucial part of business, but most businesses don’t do it very well. In fact, the average life cycle of a firm is only 15 years. why?
9:45 How do best practices and systems become rigid and kill innovation? How can so many smart people do such dumb things?
13:41 Hierarchies aren’t bad in and of themselves, but some are better than others. It turns out that product or niche teams work better than functional silos.
17:12 So what about our personal rigidity? Why aren’t people better innovators? Some of it is our mental models and biases (the dreaded paradigm word). Some of the problem is a lack of “self-efficacy” or confidence. Why do smart people freeze in their tracks when trying something new?
24:03 Becoming a role model for confidence and innovation isn’t easy. It requires giving and receiving constant feedback and recognition. Nobody said this would be easy. There’s also some brain science behind this, and you know how this show loves brain science.
27:35 The main thing people have to do to innovate is to take our mind, heart and guts to work. It’s amazing what people can do when they actually care about more than their personal execution.