Lead from the Emerging Future by Engaging Your Edges

Big data has been a discussion topic for some time now, but data in and of itself is not particularly useful. What is more useful, what we are in search of, are key insights derived from data and, in particular, insights derived from disconfirming data.

Now, for something to be disconfirming implies that it does not align with our experiences, mental models, assumptions, hypotheses, and/ or belief systems. In short, it represents ‘different.’ And different often means important in terms of learning and innovation. For example, if we survey our customers and learn of some new, disconfirming insights about their needs, requirements, and specifications for performance, we will take notice.

More than this, we will likely adjust our products, services, and/or operational processes to accommodate such differences in order to establish a competitive advantage in the marketplace. In this example, disconfirming data served as the source of innovation.

In today’s fast-changing, hyper-competitive world, a company should be relentless in probing, sensing, and harvesting disconfirming data (insights) to learn and adapt from, as such insights and intel directly impact a company’s ability to quickly and adequately respond to change. We know this to be true, as examples abound of those who have not successfully leveraged disconfirming data: Big 3 automakers (US), Blockbuster, Sears/Kmart, Toys R Us, Kodak, Borders Bookstore, Nokia, Blackberry, Xerox, Yahoo, IBM, and many others. To compete effectively, a company needs to engage the edges of its ecosystem (and beyond) for insights.

In practice, there are two macro activities required: 1) Engage the outer edges in harvesting/synthesizing data and harvest insights external to the company and 2) engage the inner edges in harvesting/synthesizing data and insights from within the company’s walls. Let’s discuss what we can do to engage the outer edges.

When I speak of outer edges, I refer to actions aimed at learning about the broader ecosystem (and beyond) in which a company operates. Fortunately, there are several techniques one can employ and/or sources one can leverage to obtain external insights:

• Transformative Scenario Planning,

• Proactively journeying into other sectors, geographies, and disciplines to obtain disconfirming data and insights. These efforts are referred to as conducting ‘field trips’ out into the broader system in which you operate;

• Social media sites - Amazon (…to learn about your products); Glassdoor/Indeed (…to learn about your culture, your benefits, your leaders); Yelp (…to learn about your services); Facebook (…to learn about your people); Twitter (…to learn about your customers);

• Customer/client experience feedback;

• Industry conferences/seminars;

• Think tank reports;

• Newsprint/magazines;

• Partner/supplier feedback;

• Benchmarking other industries;

• Social sciences (to learn/apply what we can from the sciences);

• Nature (to learn/apply what we can from nature);

• Action research studies;

• Interdisciplinary incubators;

• Engaging multiple sectors to mash together perspectives, insights, and trends to see what wants to emerge

As you can see, there are several sources/methods one can leverage to obtain novel, external insights. And if harvesting external insights is the yin of corporate intel gathering, then the yang is harvesting internal insights. Most companies today do not effectively ‘engage the edges’ within their company.

Instead, they engage only the top leadership (top one to three levels) within the company. This is fatal. It has long been known and written about that it is your frontline staff who have the best pulse on your customers in terms of what they care about and how their needs and requirements shift over time.

As such, a company does not reach out to these staff members at their own peril. As with external sourcing, there are several sources one can internally engage to harvest novel insights:

• Staff engagement surveys

• Enterprise risk assessments

• Focus groups

• Suggestion boxes

• Townhall QA

• Quality program feedback loops

• Chat rooms (e.g., Yammer)

• Quick polls (via corporate home page)

• Internal audit findings

• Helpline anonymous feedback

• Performance review/360 dialogue

• Idea/brainstorming trees

• World Café or Open Space Technology events

Know this: ‘sensing change’ is a prerequisite to effectively ‘adapting to change,’ but it requires engaging a wide variety of sources – internal and external. In my opinion, the ability to sense and respond to change is the highest-order action and capability a company could develop. As such, every company should establish an enterprise ‘sensing’ team of significant size and unlimited resources to traverse the globe, relentlessly seeking out, synthesizing, and sharing disconfirming data and insights with the rest of the company. Nothing less than a company’s survival is at stake.

Related Reading

• Continuous Listening Framework to Boost Org Performance

• Engaging the Edges: A Strategy for Transformative Change

• AI and the Future of Organization Development (OD)

Facing a complex change challenge in your organization? Book an OD consultation with Henosis Partners.