- [Narrator] One of the toughest challenges
for any organization is pursuing two conflicting goals
at the same time.
Being consistent,
while also being innovative.
Consistency in processes enables you to learn
how to accomplish the same task, better, faster
and perhaps cheaper.
Consistency in products and services
also give customers the assurance
that they will have the same experience
whether it's at the same or a different location.
Yet, in our dynamic world taken to the extreme
consistency can also be the surest path
to an organization's depth.
It's easy to manage an organization
for consistency and order.
You streamline the processes,
lay out the standard operating procedures,
ask people to stick to the stated policies and rules,
and manage in a top-down manner.
It's also easy to nurture an organization for chaos.
That is a never ending departure from the routine.
All you have to do is to tell people to do their own thing
and just sit and watch.
As you might imagine,
neither complete order nor complete chaos
is good for an organization's health.
Instead, you need an optimal mix of the two.
So how do you effectively pursue
both within the same company at the same time
without creating confusion or an awful mess?
Here are some guidelines.
First, much like a train station,
think in terms of a stable platform,
coupled with dynamic action.
The look and feel of Amazon's website,
and how you navigate through it, is like a platform.
Amazon cannot risk changing it too often.
But the products and prices are thoroughly dynamic.
Similarly, the layout of a Walmart store is like a platform.
It shouldn't change too often.
However, what they sell and at what prices
can be a lot more dynamic.
Second, create well defined sand boxes for experimentation.
Phillips Exeter Academy, a renowned boarding school,
has literally created
a section called Sandbox Courses in its course catalog.
This is where the school engages in curricular innovation
such as cross-disciplinary courses
or courses which integrate classroom learning
with core or extracurricular activities.
Some of these experimental courses may eventual become
part of the regular course catalog.
Others may not.
Third, set up simple rules
regarding how people allocate their time
between routine tasks and experimentation.
3M Corporation has long implemented the policy
that every employee should feel at liberty
to spend 15% of their time on projects of their own choice.
Fourth, consider conducting experiments in units
that are geographically separate from other units,
this way you minimize confusion amongst staff and customers.
Also, when some experiments fail, as they surely will,
you minimize damage to your core business.
Take Uber or Lyft.
Rather than experimenting in every city
across their U.S. network,
they might choose a few cities
like Atlanta, Miami and Denver to try out new ideas.
And fifth, if the interlinkages
between various units are weak,
consider separating them organizationally.
Look at Alphabet Inc, Google's parent.
Alphabet is a collection of companies such as Google
with its own subunits,
search, advertising, maps, YouTube and Android.
Waymo, self-driving cars.
Calico aging and age related diseases.
And XLAB, moonshot projects such as Wing
that's focused on delivery by drones.
This organizational separation allows each unit
to pursue focused experimentation within its own domain.
As you can see,
nurturing both order and chaos at the same time
is like playing jazz.
Creativity, coupled with harmony,
can result in beautiful music
and foster innovation in your company.