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The Imperfectionists: Strategic Mindsets for Uncertain Times
The world is changing faster and faster, with increasing uncertainty and threat of disruption in every business and nonprofit segment. Conventional approaches to strategy development and problem solving no longer work―there is no stable industry or market equilibrium structure that we will return to “when change abates.” Most company planning processes are fantasy; market conditions are changing too quickly for arm-chair strategizing to be useful. As a consequence, many management teams are stuck in a wait-and-see posture in response to extreme uncertainty in the post-Covid environment, while others are making panicky bets, including ‘leap before you look’ acquisitions. In this sequel to their Amazon-bestseller, Bulletproof Problem Solving , Conn and McLean introduce a novel approach to strategic problem solving. Based on a decade of research and 30 new case studies, The Imperfectionists posits a dynamic approach to developing organizational direction under uncertainty based on harnessing six reinforcing strategic mindsets, which they call curiosity, dragonfly eye, occurrent behaviour, collective wisdom, imperfectionism, and show and tell. Imperfectionists are curious, they look at problems from several perspectives, and gather new data and approaches, including from outside their current industry. They deliberately step into risk, proceeding through trial and error, utilizing nimble low consequence and reversible moves to deepen their understanding of the unfolding game being played, and to build capabilities. They accept ambiguity and some apparent failures in exchange for improved learning and market position. Imperfectionists succeed with dynamic, real time strategic problem solving, confidently moving forward while others wait for certainty, or make impetuous and foolish bets. These strategic mindsets for solving tough problems in uncertain times help you fight decision biases and give you the data to develop informed strategies to win. In the fast changing world we all find ourselves in, being an imperfectionist is a critical advantage for you and your organization.
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Published May 16, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 8, 2023
Takeaways from reading the book.
Initiative # 1: Be curious.
- Pages 9 and 25: Ask why and how. That helps you go beyond conventional answers.
- Page 11: Curiosity reduces uncertainty as you seek to learn what you need to know to solve a problem.
- Page 22: Curiosity is the desire to close a gap between what you know and what you.want to know.
- Page 23: Babies are enormously curious. From ages 5 to 12 curiosity diminishes rapidly, as fewer everyday events bring surprises, and as the number of worked-out answers increases.
- Page 23: For Walt Disney, curiosity was the driving force behind his company's evolution.
- Page 26: Albert Einstein said, "I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious."
- Page 31: The development of Nespresso illustrates the benefits of having time and space to explore curiosity, the resources to experiment, and a charter to innovate and possibly cannibalize a core business. For example, Eric Favre went to Italy to learn about coffee. He always tested various ideas / solutions in his lab.
- Page 35: A psychologically safe environment in which to ask any questions is essential to promote curiosity.
- Page 37: Organizations that always value answers over questions fail to innovate - especially in uncertain times.
- Page 37: Use surprises to get curiosity flowing.
- Page 37: Block time in your calendar to do deep work without distractions.
Initiative # 2: Open your mind when you look at the world
- Page 11: By using different lenses, you can understand a problem in different ways.
- Page 42: Ford separated electric vehicle and combustion engine units - thereby helping the new electric vehicle unit see the electric vehicle innovation challenge from different perspectives.
- Page 56: Have you thought about your company as a technology company?
Initiative 3: Test hypotheses
- Page 13: Patagonia works with athletes, who test different versions of products - thereby helping the company learn and be able to develop products that better satisfy needs of people.
- Page 63: The city of Stockton in California tested a hypothesis that giving people money would encourage people to work less. Result of the test: More people, who received money, worked more a year later than people, who received no money.
- Page 70: Jean Liu, COO of Didi, a ride hailing service somewhat similar to UBER, drove around as driver and talked to Didi users to learn about what to improve. She also invited drivers to send feedback to her personally over Weibo. Following that Liu tested ideas relentlessly in several areas.
- Page 73: In Australia and the UK, a machine learning model, which can predict the probability of underground water pipe failure based on multiple attributes, is being tested by water utility partners. Already, the solutions have saved the equivalent of the amount of water in 2,000 olympic-sized swimming pools.
- Page 79: Princeton University economist Orley Ashenfelter tested how weather influences the quality and price of Bordeaux wine. In general, Ashenfelter said, high quality vintages for Bordeaux wines correspond to the years in which the previous winter has been wet, the growing season is warm, and the months August and September are dry. He formulated the results of his test in this equation: Wine quality = (12.145 / 0.00117 * Winter rainfall) + (0.0614 * Average growing season temperature) - (0.00386 * Harvest rainfall). With his method, Ashenfelter was able to explain 83% of the variation in the average prices of Bordeaux vintages.
- Page 81: If you do not test, articulate why. Examples: 1. We have a culture of answers. 2. We feel fear. 3. We do not know how to test inexpensively.
Initiative # 4: Crowdsource
- Page 86: In a study characterized by 17,302 images of melanoma and nevus, AI outperformed all 157 dermatologists. Similarly, analysis of echocardiogram test data shows that AI is 50% better than cardiologists at predicting future cardiac problems.
- Page 86: When problems display high uncertainty and deep complexity, it is a good idea to use collective intelligence, i.e. to look beyond individual experts. A community of people with diverse expertise will find more and/or better solutions than would be found by individuals working individually.
- Page 99: TikTok embraces the collective intelligence of its users with a highly sophisticated AI curation of user provided content.
- Page 99: On TikTok the AI works through liked videos, replayed videos, videos swiped rapidly and videos shared with others.
- Page 102: Collective intelligence can turn into collective illusions when people do not ask why. 2 examples: 1. Strong increases in the price of tulips in 1835. 2. Climate change in the USA.
Initiative # 5: Take small steps
- Page 15: Take a step. If that feels good, take another. If it does not feel good, take a step back.
- Page 108: Focus on learning.
- Page 109: Examine each decision after you know the outcome. Find out how the way you made decisions contributed to success.
Example: Drug innovation. Pages 121-124.
The road to successful drug innovation comprises several stages of discovery:
- The research stage of understanding diverse pathways, identifying mechanisms that affect those disease processes, finding candidate compounds to treat or cure the disease, and then designing and testing targeted therapeutics.
- The development stage is divided into four phases in the USA. Phase 1: Small safety studies. Phase 2: Small-scale efficacy and side-effect trials. Phase 3: Expensive large-scale studies of safety and efficacy. Phase 4: Regulatory approval and post-approval monitoring. The large challenge in drug innovation is successfully moving past phase 2. This is where proof of concept is tested in human subjects. There are many reasons why the development of a drug need to be stopped.
The superpower of pharmaceutical companies is knowing when to take on risk, and when to offload risk to others - including academic researchers and start-up biotech companies. Public and private academic researchers, funded by grants, have a higher tolerance for risk, as do funders of start-up biotechs, which often take early academic ideas and develop them via lab and animal research. In the case of Kymriah, Novartis outsourced discovery risk to the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Under an agreement with the university, UPenn granted Novartis a worldwide license to the technologies it had developed over the previous 9 years for treating chronic lymphocyctic leukemia (CLL) as well as future CAR-based therapies. Both UPenn and the inventors receive royalty payments.
Initiative # 6: Share what you learn
- Page 17: Sharing what you learn creates transparency and invites other people to learn.
- Page 132: Use visualizations / pictures / images / graphics / diagrams. Example: A graphic / picture by the nurse Florence Nightingale captured people's attention and generated more impact than a million words.
- Page 136: Use demonstrations / experiments. Example: Putting a rubber ring into a glass of ice water, Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman demonstrated that when you put some pressure on it, it does not stretch back. In other words, there is no resilience in the material when it is at a temperature of 32 degrees. Through this experiment performed live on television, Feynman explained the accident that took the lives of 7 astronauts on the Challenger space shuttle.
- Page 143: There is enormous value in using surprise and novelty to change hearts and minds.
Initiative # 1: Be curious.
- Pages 9 and 25: Ask why and how. That helps you go beyond conventional answers.
- Page 11: Curiosity reduces uncertainty as you seek to learn what you need to know to solve a problem.
- Page 22: Curiosity is the desire to close a gap between what you know and what you.want to know.
- Page 23: Babies are enormously curious. From ages 5 to 12 curiosity diminishes rapidly, as fewer everyday events bring surprises, and as the number of worked-out answers increases.
- Page 23: For Walt Disney, curiosity was the driving force behind his company's evolution.
- Page 26: Albert Einstein said, "I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious."
- Page 31: The development of Nespresso illustrates the benefits of having time and space to explore curiosity, the resources to experiment, and a charter to innovate and possibly cannibalize a core business. For example, Eric Favre went to Italy to learn about coffee. He always tested various ideas / solutions in his lab.
- Page 35: A psychologically safe environment in which to ask any questions is essential to promote curiosity.
- Page 37: Organizations that always value answers over questions fail to innovate - especially in uncertain times.
- Page 37: Use surprises to get curiosity flowing.
- Page 37: Block time in your calendar to do deep work without distractions.
Initiative # 2: Open your mind when you look at the world
- Page 11: By using different lenses, you can understand a problem in different ways.
- Page 42: Ford separated electric vehicle and combustion engine units - thereby helping the new electric vehicle unit see the electric vehicle innovation challenge from different perspectives.
- Page 56: Have you thought about your company as a technology company?
Initiative 3: Test hypotheses
- Page 13: Patagonia works with athletes, who test different versions of products - thereby helping the company learn and be able to develop products that better satisfy needs of people.
- Page 63: The city of Stockton in California tested a hypothesis that giving people money would encourage people to work less. Result of the test: More people, who received money, worked more a year later than people, who received no money.
- Page 70: Jean Liu, COO of Didi, a ride hailing service somewhat similar to UBER, drove around as driver and talked to Didi users to learn about what to improve. She also invited drivers to send feedback to her personally over Weibo. Following that Liu tested ideas relentlessly in several areas.
- Page 73: In Australia and the UK, a machine learning model, which can predict the probability of underground water pipe failure based on multiple attributes, is being tested by water utility partners. Already, the solutions have saved the equivalent of the amount of water in 2,000 olympic-sized swimming pools.
- Page 79: Princeton University economist Orley Ashenfelter tested how weather influences the quality and price of Bordeaux wine. In general, Ashenfelter said, high quality vintages for Bordeaux wines correspond to the years in which the previous winter has been wet, the growing season is warm, and the months August and September are dry. He formulated the results of his test in this equation: Wine quality = (12.145 / 0.00117 * Winter rainfall) + (0.0614 * Average growing season temperature) - (0.00386 * Harvest rainfall). With his method, Ashenfelter was able to explain 83% of the variation in the average prices of Bordeaux vintages.
- Page 81: If you do not test, articulate why. Examples: 1. We have a culture of answers. 2. We feel fear. 3. We do not know how to test inexpensively.
Initiative # 4: Crowdsource
- Page 86: In a study characterized by 17,302 images of melanoma and nevus, AI outperformed all 157 dermatologists. Similarly, analysis of echocardiogram test data shows that AI is 50% better than cardiologists at predicting future cardiac problems.
- Page 86: When problems display high uncertainty and deep complexity, it is a good idea to use collective intelligence, i.e. to look beyond individual experts. A community of people with diverse expertise will find more and/or better solutions than would be found by individuals working individually.
- Page 99: TikTok embraces the collective intelligence of its users with a highly sophisticated AI curation of user provided content.
- Page 99: On TikTok the AI works through liked videos, replayed videos, videos swiped rapidly and videos shared with others.
- Page 102: Collective intelligence can turn into collective illusions when people do not ask why. 2 examples: 1. Strong increases in the price of tulips in 1835. 2. Climate change in the USA.
Initiative # 5: Take small steps
- Page 15: Take a step. If that feels good, take another. If it does not feel good, take a step back.
- Page 108: Focus on learning.
- Page 109: Examine each decision after you know the outcome. Find out how the way you made decisions contributed to success.
Example: Drug innovation. Pages 121-124.
The road to successful drug innovation comprises several stages of discovery:
- The research stage of understanding diverse pathways, identifying mechanisms that affect those disease processes, finding candidate compounds to treat or cure the disease, and then designing and testing targeted therapeutics.
- The development stage is divided into four phases in the USA. Phase 1: Small safety studies. Phase 2: Small-scale efficacy and side-effect trials. Phase 3: Expensive large-scale studies of safety and efficacy. Phase 4: Regulatory approval and post-approval monitoring. The large challenge in drug innovation is successfully moving past phase 2. This is where proof of concept is tested in human subjects. There are many reasons why the development of a drug need to be stopped.
The superpower of pharmaceutical companies is knowing when to take on risk, and when to offload risk to others - including academic researchers and start-up biotech companies. Public and private academic researchers, funded by grants, have a higher tolerance for risk, as do funders of start-up biotechs, which often take early academic ideas and develop them via lab and animal research. In the case of Kymriah, Novartis outsourced discovery risk to the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Under an agreement with the university, UPenn granted Novartis a worldwide license to the technologies it had developed over the previous 9 years for treating chronic lymphocyctic leukemia (CLL) as well as future CAR-based therapies. Both UPenn and the inventors receive royalty payments.
Initiative # 6: Share what you learn
- Page 17: Sharing what you learn creates transparency and invites other people to learn.
- Page 132: Use visualizations / pictures / images / graphics / diagrams. Example: A graphic / picture by the nurse Florence Nightingale captured people's attention and generated more impact than a million words.
- Page 136: Use demonstrations / experiments. Example: Putting a rubber ring into a glass of ice water, Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman demonstrated that when you put some pressure on it, it does not stretch back. In other words, there is no resilience in the material when it is at a temperature of 32 degrees. Through this experiment performed live on television, Feynman explained the accident that took the lives of 7 astronauts on the Challenger space shuttle.
- Page 143: There is enormous value in using surprise and novelty to change hearts and minds.
September 21, 2024
The Imperfectionists: Strategic Mindsets for Uncertain Times is a guide to navigating the complexities and uncertainties of the modern business world. The book introduces six strategic mindsets that are essential for thriving in today's rapidly changing environment:
1. Curiosity: Encourages a continuous quest for knowledge and understanding, fostering innovation and adaptability.
2. Dragonfly Eye: Promotes viewing problems from multiple perspectives to gain a comprehensive understanding.
3. Experimentalism: Emphasizes the importance of trial and error, learning from failures, and making incremental improvements.
4. Collective Intelligence: Highlights the power of collaboration and leveraging diverse insights and expertise.
5. Storytelling: Stresses the significance of effective communication and the ability to convey complex ideas through compelling narratives.
6. Imperfectionism: Advocates for embracing uncertainty and imperfection as opportunities for growth and learning.
The authors draw on decades of research and numerous case studies to illustrate how these mindsets can be applied in real-world scenarios. They argue that traditional approaches to strategy and problem-solving are no longer sufficient in a world where change is constant and unpredictable. Instead, adopting these strategic mindsets can help individuals and organizations navigate ambiguity, make informed decisions, and achieve sustainable success¹.
1. Curiosity: Encourages a continuous quest for knowledge and understanding, fostering innovation and adaptability.
2. Dragonfly Eye: Promotes viewing problems from multiple perspectives to gain a comprehensive understanding.
3. Experimentalism: Emphasizes the importance of trial and error, learning from failures, and making incremental improvements.
4. Collective Intelligence: Highlights the power of collaboration and leveraging diverse insights and expertise.
5. Storytelling: Stresses the significance of effective communication and the ability to convey complex ideas through compelling narratives.
6. Imperfectionism: Advocates for embracing uncertainty and imperfection as opportunities for growth and learning.
The authors draw on decades of research and numerous case studies to illustrate how these mindsets can be applied in real-world scenarios. They argue that traditional approaches to strategy and problem-solving are no longer sufficient in a world where change is constant and unpredictable. Instead, adopting these strategic mindsets can help individuals and organizations navigate ambiguity, make informed decisions, and achieve sustainable success¹.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 8, 2025
This book is an easy read full of real life stories. It gives a sense of security on how to deal with uncertainty.
Some key takeaways from the book:
We can't build the future looking at the back mirror only
Curiosity is the desire to fill in the gap between what you know and what you want to know
The good leader, asks questions (building curiosity in your team)
See the issue from different lenses. And cover a 360 degree view to avoid having blind spots
Using multiple lenses make us approach and understand reality better, so we come up with better solutions.
experimenting and collecting data could provide the needed solutions/ answers
Outsourcing & diverse teams are the best to find solutions
step into risk after collecting all of the available information.
To overcome change resistance & skepticism when implementing the solutions:
show & tell, build storytelling skills, conspire with the CEO, execute with surprise & novelty
Take small steps, to measure the risk and feedback while changing. Or trail in a small part.
Under uncertainty: our knowledge will always be limited & incomplete
Some key takeaways from the book:
We can't build the future looking at the back mirror only
Curiosity is the desire to fill in the gap between what you know and what you want to know
The good leader, asks questions (building curiosity in your team)
See the issue from different lenses. And cover a 360 degree view to avoid having blind spots
Using multiple lenses make us approach and understand reality better, so we come up with better solutions.
experimenting and collecting data could provide the needed solutions/ answers
Outsourcing & diverse teams are the best to find solutions
step into risk after collecting all of the available information.
To overcome change resistance & skepticism when implementing the solutions:
show & tell, build storytelling skills, conspire with the CEO, execute with surprise & novelty
Take small steps, to measure the risk and feedback while changing. Or trail in a small part.
Under uncertainty: our knowledge will always be limited & incomplete
December 23, 2023
Blinks:
1. Curiosity will keep you abreast of changes in life, society, and the modern world
2. Dragonfly eye perspective alludes to having a multi-perspective approach to the problems one can face.
3. Experimental or occurrent behavior means to try, test, fail, and fix until you get the right answer.
4. Collective intelligence is better than single experts. Crowsource expertise, collective wisdom, and human AI collaboration.
5. Storytelling that has insights wrapped in engaging narratives will ultimately be understood best.
6. Imperfectionism let's us move forward even if we don't have all the information at hand. Call out the risks but don't let it paralyze from moving forward. Lean into risks with reversible moves.
1. Curiosity will keep you abreast of changes in life, society, and the modern world
2. Dragonfly eye perspective alludes to having a multi-perspective approach to the problems one can face.
3. Experimental or occurrent behavior means to try, test, fail, and fix until you get the right answer.
4. Collective intelligence is better than single experts. Crowsource expertise, collective wisdom, and human AI collaboration.
5. Storytelling that has insights wrapped in engaging narratives will ultimately be understood best.
6. Imperfectionism let's us move forward even if we don't have all the information at hand. Call out the risks but don't let it paralyze from moving forward. Lean into risks with reversible moves.
January 18, 2025
This book introduces a set of six mindsets that can be applied to structuring and solving complex problems. It is not only extremely practical but, insightful for the strategist who is wrestling with ambiguity and uncertainty in today’s market environment. I found the myriad of case studies referenced in this book to be excellent examples of the principles highlighted by the authors put to practice. This was a great read and I’d highly recommend this for executives and strategy practitioners.
January 24, 2025
Understand the problem and then look for a good a story and iterate.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews