Leadership Tips for Today to Stay in the Game Tomorrow

Description

This article summarizes research by the author into why some organizations fail in the face of "punctuated change," while others are reborn, adapt and survive. The key, he finds, involves embracing paradox. Continuing to exploit current business success is a must, but so is taking a plunge into the future through exploration. Carrying out both of these activities simultaneously calls for ambidexterity. The article highlights the defining features and characteristics of ambidexterity, and the keys that underpin putting it into action. While these skills need to reside in the leader at the top, senior management teams and heads of business units have to be just as adept at grasping the cognitive complexity and making the tradeoffs required for future success.

Keywords

age alignment ambidexterity ambidextrous collaboration community competencies crowdsourcing dynamic capabilities execution exploit-explore sweet spot exploitation exploration genomics inertia innovation portfolio mixed messages multifaceted identity open innovation organizational ambidexterity paradox partnership problem-solving knowledge robotics self-destructive senior teams sharing economy short-term thinking strategy task decomposition