With Peter Sims
~ What do Bill Hewlett, Chris Rock, and Jeff Bezos have in common?
~ How risk-averse organizations can capitalize on design school principles.
~ Overcoming psychological barriers to creative experimentation.
Much like the standup comedian who tests and refines jokes in small clubs before rolling them out to a television audience, most successful entrepreneurs don't begin with brilliant ideas: they discover them through a deliberate process of creative trial and error. From his research on innovative leaders - from Apple, 3M, Toyota, and Starbucks, to the U.S. Army's counterinsurgency strategists, to artists and even standup comics - Peter Sims found they shared a surprisingly similar approach.
These innovators methodically take small experimental ideas through a process of testing, failure, and refinement. Their low-risk "little bets" provide critical information for multiple iterations and successive small wins that eventually lead to creative breakthroughs. Pixar, for example, was acquired by Steve Jobs as a hardware company, but its peripheral and low-risk experimentation in short animated films over several years ultimately led it to pivot to full-length filmmaking and the highly successful Toy Story franchise.
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