Monday, September 29, 2025

Space - Battles We Have to Win, part 5

 Ambidexterity is the leader’s Job One and comprises: 1) Protecting the core business with Lean/OpEx, and 2) Igniting new Growth using Digital methods. Ambidexterity does not come easy. Here is the 5th in a series on the battles we have to win.


The five blockers are a syndrome - each reinforces the others.

The deadly risks of our day are Volatility, Black Swans, and Obsolescence. Doing nothing is our riskiest option. When the ocean is in furious flux, alertness, agility and speed are of the essence, and ambidexterity is their clearest expression.

Ignorance, Fear, Scatter, Guesswork and Space. These are the ‘battles’ we have to win. Today I’ll talk about Space, summarize key lessons in the series.

Space

Whether we’re protecting our core business with Lean/OpEx, or igniting new growth with Digital, we have to make space for transformation – physical, temporal, financial, strategic, cultural and psychological space. Otherwise, corporate antibodies are likely to shut us down.  Indeed, (infamously) between 70 to 90% of both Lean/OpEx, and Digital transformations fail to meet their targets. If we do not create space for change, the blockers usually win. If we do not protect that space, the blockers always win.

Physical, Temporal, and Financial Space

A core element of my innovation work (aka ‘Smart Growth’) entails building a ‘Showcase’ wherein a selected, capable, motivated, 3H team of high achievers demonstrates a new way of working – and produces kick-ass results. And so, we need a dedicated physical space (aka Maker’s Space, Learning Lab, Incubator, Accelerator, Innovation Hub) wherein the team & the rest of the organization can learn by doing. We also need to carve out time, and a dedicated budget. For example, Lean experimentation & growth hacking entail landing pages, ads, explainer videos and the like through which we test & validate our hypotheses. Building an ecosystem of providers is in my experience the best, quickest & most effective way to doing so.

Strategic, Cultural, and Psychological Space

Strategic space means our strategy and its physical expressions (Obeya, Control Tower, Team Boards and so on) explicitly outline our Innovation targets and activities. Our visual expressions of Strategy reflect our commitment to ambidexterity: the is dedicated space for 1) protecting the core business, and 2) igniting new Growth.  The latter usually entails visual management showing the purpose, and status of our Innovation portfolio.

Cultural and psychological space means that senior leaders and the Board tirelessly express their commitment to working in a new way. DBS Bank (often cited as the ‘World’s Best Digital Bank’) is a good example. The bank’s Board & CEO, Piyush Gupta, have been the living expression DBS’ winning logic: Close to the customer; 30,000-person startup; Digital to the core. I can confirm that team members across the organization understand & accept the winning logic.  (I’ve randomly asked a few dozen of them over the years)

Transformation Blockers are a Syndrome

Our five blockers comprise a ‘syndrome’, in other words, a pattern of symptoms that reflect a specific pathology. Each blocker reinforces the others, making change particularly challenging. For example, Ignorance triggers Fear, which triggers Guesswork, which triggers Scatter. And these in turn compromise the physical, temporal and financial space needed to work in a new way. And that’s why 70 to 90 percent of transformation efforts fail to meet their objectives.

It's a heck of a problem, but it can be solved. That’s why I’m writing these articles.

Best wishes,

Pascal Dennis         E: pascal.dennis@leansystems.org


In case you missed earlier blogs... please feel free to have another look….

Guesswork - continued


Transformation - the Battles We Have to Win - Guesswork

Transformation - the Battles We Have to Win - Scatter
Transformation - the Battles We Have to Win - Fear

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