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Most organisations have an ambidextrous design. A large part of the organisation deploys techniques to maximise performance in the known market. A much smaller part deploys techniques to discover growth opportunities in the unknown market. For decades, that’s been good enough.

It isn’t anymore.

Today’s leaders are having to face a difficult reality. The known markets are under attack from digital players. Some are established Big Tech players. Others are obscure start-ups. They are all focused on eating into known markets via digital means. Threats are coming in all shapes and sizes from all directions.

Established organisations have to respond. They need to learn how to re-explore the known. If you’ve run any hackathons or workshops on agile methodology or design thinking, then you’ve already entered the realm of re-exploration.

Sadly, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Welcome to the challenge of tri-dexterity.

A tri-dextrous organisation needs to:

– Exploit the known

– Explore the unknown

– Re-explore the known

The problem with re-exploring the known is that it feels strange and unnatural. It’s like being asked to repeatedly sign your name with your wrong hand. You can, but it looks ugly and feels weird. It would be so much easier and faster to switch back to your usual hand.

It’s a deep paradox. The best way to survive and thrive is to do things that feel strange and unnatural. Even worse, the effort to resist the desire to switch back, and to continue to learn and practice this strange new way of doing things, is cognitively, physically and emotionally exhausting.

In this talk, we’ll explore:

– The neuroscience of tri-dexterity: why the brain resists the novel and unknown, and what to do about it

– Leadership and tri-dexterity: how to re-imagine leadership as an enabling force in this strange and complex reality

– Organizational design and tri-dexterity: what types of culture and teamwork practices enable high-performance in a tri-dextrous environment