The Imperfectionists: Strategic Mindsets for Uncertain Times 9781119835660, 9781119835684, 9781119835677, 1119835666

Table of contents :
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
Introduction: Becoming an Imperfectionist
The Context: Massive Change and Uncertainty
Problem Solving Toolsets and Mindsets
Six Mindsets for Problem Solving under Uncertainty
Ever Curious
Dragonfly Eye
Occurrent Behavior
Collective Intelligence
Imperfectionism
Show and Tell
Is Your Organization an Imperfectionist?
Mindsets Together
Chapter 1 Ever Curious
“Can I see the photograph, Daddy?”
Understanding Curiosity
Children, Curiosity, and Uncertainty
Environments Conducive to Curiosity
Unleashing Curiosity
Flourishing in the Flow of Ideas
Einstein the Patent Clerk
Time and Space for J.S. Bach
Deep Work to Make a Great Coffee
Audacious Questions
ResMed’s Big Questions
Killer Questions at Space X
Novelty, Gestation, and Safety
Novelty and Surprise
Quiescent Curiosity
Safety and Creativity
Building Curiosity in Your Organization
Chapter 2 Dragonfly Eye
A New Lens on Recidivism
Seeing Like a Dragonfly
Anchoring Outside
Framing the Dragonfly Eye
The Power of Changing Lenses
Beer Kegs as Technology
A Fresh Look at Braces
Choosing the Wrong Lens: WeWork
Widening the Aperture
Amazon’s Head Start in Cloud Computing
Solving a Health Crisis
A Multi-Lens Approach
The Neurodiversity Lens and a Digital Twin for Kelp Forests
Obesity and Wicked Problems
Bringing a Dragonfly Eye into Your Organization
Chapter 3 Occurrent Behavior
Let’s Weigh the Money
Occurrent Behavior and Problem Solving
Thinking Like a Bayesian
Framing Occurrent Behavior
Experiment to Create New Data
Autonomous Vehicle Experiments
Space X: Relentless Experimenting
A/B Testing at Airtasker
Education Perfect: What the Educators Learned
New Tools and Approaches
Jean Liu Tries Things Differently at Didi
The Hidden 80:20 Rule: Predicting Underground Water Pipe Failure
Find a Natural Experiment
Sweden versus Norway Responding to COVID
Insights into Employment and the Minimum Wage
What Makes for a Great Bordeaux Wine?
Can You Experiment Too Much?
Bringing Occurrent Behavior into Your Own Organization
Chapter 4 Collective Intelligence
A Clockmaker, a Prize, and a King
Have Experts Lost Their Luster?
Joy’s Law
Framing Collective Intelligence
Crowdsourced Expertise
Competitive Prizes
FishFace and Sustainable Tuna Catch
Collaborative Crowdsourcing—Standing on the Shoulders of Others
Collective Wisdom
Ancestral Wisdom: “Right Way Fire”
AI-Enabled Collective Intelligence
TikTok versus Quibi
AI Swarms
How to Implement Collective Intelligence in Your Organization
Chapter 5 Imperfectionism
Big Bet on Shiny Metal
A Mindset for Leaning into Risk
Embracing Imperfection
Framing Imperfectionism Strategies
Stepping into Risk
Bezos’s Bets
Knowing “When to Hold Them”: Defending CSIRO’s Wi-Fi Patent
Passing Off Risk to Others
Game-Set-Match: The All England Lawn Tennis Club and Insurance
Hedging Strategies: Invest in Rivals
Kymriah: Letting Others Take Early Risks
Bringing Imperfectionism into Your Organization
Chapter 6 Show and Tell
Barry Marshall’s Big Gambit
Storytelling Is a Core Problem Solving Mindset
Framing Show and Tell
Pictures Tell Stories
Florence Nightingale, Statistician
Napoleon’s Disastrous Invasion of Russia in 1812
Spark Curiosity with Props
What Are the Buckets For?
It Was the O-RingThat Failed
When All Else Fails, Use Demonstrations
Robbing the Bank
Speak to Values
Frames Beat Facts
Bringing Show and Tell to Your Organization
Chapter 7 Epilogue: All Strategies Are Wagers
Pascal’s Wager
Understand the Structure of the Problem
Other Players
Number of Plays
Reversibility and Irreversibility
Binary or Continuous
Timeframes and Set-Plays
Weigh the Stakes
Estimate the Odds
Appendix: Bulletproof Problem Solving: A Disciplined Toolset for Great Problem Solving
Notes
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Index
EULA