How to Nurture Crazy Ideas That Save the World

Companies face the same challenge the military faces when evaluating successful strategies and new ideas. Both need to balance “core” versus “new” priorities.

If you’re in a nuclear submarine, you want to make sure you won’t hear clanking sounds from the engine room when you’re under water. Neither do you want to be suddenly ambushed by a new type of torpedo. The stakes for companies may not be quite as life and death as that, but the risk of being blindsided feels the same.

Too often, companies have either a culture that supports rank and hierarchy – which is good for executing projects – or one that supports innovation – which favors new products. Companies seldom do a good job of supporting both. You need discipline to stay on schedule and deliver for your customers, but your company also needs to nurture crazy ideas and innovations to stay atop its market.

To change a culture, create the right underlying conditions.

Some cultures are political; others are innovative. Just as the transition of water from liquid to ice happens due to a small temperature change, so, too, can underlying structural changes powerfully ...