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Overview
Many companies fail not because of strategy or market conditions, but because the leader is still trying to be the smartest person in the room. In this episode, John Jantsch sits down with Jason Wild, managing consultant and co-author of Genius at Scale, published by HBR Press, to reveal that the single genius model of leadership is timeless. It’s holding companies back.
Jason spent more than 20 years in senior roles at Microsoft, IBM, and Salesforce, leading projects in 40 countries. He watched brilliant people put their careers into creative endeavors that succeeded at rates of five to fifteen percent, not because the ideas were bad, but because the conditions surrounding those ideas were not designed to support them. Genius at Scale is his answer to that problem.
This episode covers from finding a way to finding a way, the three leadership roles that drive repeatable innovation, why most great ideas die in the mix instead of thought, and what small business owners can do right now to build a team that doesn’t need them to be the source of all great ideas.
About Jason Wilde
Jason Wild is a management consultant, founder of Wild Innovation Consulting, and co-author of Genius at Scale: How Great Leaders Drive Innovation, published by HBR Press. He has spent more than two decades in senior leadership roles at IBM, Microsoft, and Salesforce and has led projects in 40 countries. Earlier in his career he had television and film credits, including a role alongside Mr. T he CBS movie. Learn more at geniusatscale.com.
Key Takeaways
- Stop hiring an A player. Build team A. The difference sounds small but it changes everything about how you earn, hire, and plan.
- Innovation is a social process. You can’t approve it. You have to create conditions where people feel safe enough and motivated enough to want to create a future with you.
- Most creativity focuses on synthesis, not ideas. Good ideas are not bottled. Finding them between people, systems, and groups is where everything falls apart.
- Language builds culture more than most leaders think. The Pfizer VP who blocked the name change and replaced it with evolve saw an immediate change in how his skeptical team responded to the new plans.
- The most dangerous place to make decisions is your office. Getting out and experiencing what your customers are experiencing is never a good thing to have. It is a leadership practice.
- Celebrating each success sends the wrong signal. If you want cooperation to be the norm, focus on teams, not heroes.
- Wayfinding replaces wayfinding. In this fast-changing world, a leader’s job is not to set a fixed destination and remove barriers. It’s about figuring out where you’re going as you go.
- Self-awareness is an underrated leadership skill. The way you make people feel when you give feedback is that they will bring their best thinking back to you.
- Small business owners are in better shape for this than they think. Small teams, less bureaucracy, and closeness to customers are advantages in building cultures of iterative innovation.
Time stamps
[00:02] The opening hook: The reason your company is hitting the roof may not have anything to do with strategy.
[00:53] Jason’s first job in Hollywood and acting with Mr. T on CBS movie of the week.
[01:44] Basic premise: why one intellectual model of leadership failed and what replaced it.
[03:33] What Jason saw at IBM shaped his thinking about why smart people accept such low rates of innovation success.
[06:37] Why small business founders are wired to be the mastermind in the room and why that eventually becomes the ceiling.
[07:19] ABC framework: builder, bridge, and unpackaged catalyst.
[10:07] Why the architect’s role is about culture and mental safety.
[11:03] Bridge as the unsung hero of innovation and why Death Valley is where most good ideas go to die.
[13:04] The role played by external consultants and third parties in crossing borders.
[14:03] What catalysts do it differently and how movements start with people and ideas, not companies.
[16:35] The Pfizer story: how preventing name changes helped get a vaccine out in 266 days instead of eight to ten years.
[18:25] What we often celebrate about leadership is wrong.
[20:31] How to write a book as a collaborative group to present your thesis.
Memorable Quotes
“Stop trying to hire an A player. Focus on building an A team. It sounds subtle but it’s a very different way to lead.”
“Innovation is not about coming up with the best idea. Organizations that innovate repeatedly focus on the conditions and environment around the idea.”
“Most innovation doesn’t stop at the idea stage but at the integration stage. This is where good ideas die.”
“Self-awareness is one of the most important skills in leadership. The way you make people feel when you give them feedback determines whether they will ever bring their true thinking to you.”
“If a billionaire founder can take the time to stand in line at a bank branch, everyone can practice empathy.”
Learn more at geniusatscale.com.
