Skip to content

Balancing Innovation with Ambidexterity

Yet, this is a complex and challenging task for both managers and teams in the innovation field, and for the company overall. It is a sensitive, mental balancing act that looks to require executives to explore new opportunities while exploiting existing capabilities. It is this balance between exploratory (radical) and exploitative (incremental) that is key to the manager’s ability to multitask.

In the article, The Ambidextrous Organization from the Harvard Business Review, it is posited that the most successful organizations, “separate their new, exploratory units from their traditional, exploitative ones, allowing them to have different processes, structures, and cultures; at the same time, they maintain tight links across units at the senior executive level. Such ‘ambidextrous organizations’ allow executives to pioneer radical or disruptive innovations while also pursuing incremental gains.” This in essence creates a balance between breakthrough innovations and processes while not cutting back on the company’s traditional business.

Building An Innovation Culture

So how can one build an ambidextrous organization? In a recent piece, All Things Innovation’s Seth Adler spoke with Volvo’s Mike Hatrick on how innovation starts with the employees of an organization. As we know, the people that work for a business are some of its greatest assets. In today’s world there is a struggle with professional burnout, and Hatrick alluded to the word “resilience” as being an important part of today’s world. Specifically, he states, “I think resilience within the job and after the pandemic is absolutely critical.”

Another important topic involved the culture of an organization as a whole. To Hatrick, changing an entire company culture isn’t an easy task and, most certainly, can’t happen overnight. He advised that the best way to start the process of change was to start it with a few individuals. Working with these would evolve to small teams. “Grow your tribe. Get some successes. Build, build, build – and actually, over time, you build a culture,” he says.

Aligning Ambidextrous Leadership

At a past Front End of Innovation (FEI) conference, the practice of ambidextrous leadership was explored in one of the sessions. “Ambidextrous leadership: from theory to actualization,” was presented by Micah Tindor, Senior Director Kelley Blue Book Instant Cash Offer at Cox Automotive. Tindor looked at how a business leader might process and activate ambidextrous innovation within an organization to create a pipeline of innovation success. Tindor’s session discussed how to actualize ambidextrous innovation, taking it from academic theory to repeatable process. Exploration innovation is essential to disrupt a market and maintain business leadership, but the deployment of a disruptive innovation into a business unit must be aligned to the business unit’s planning cycles, strategy, and capabilities.

“Ambidextrous leadership has to align with the front end of innovation to be successful,” says Tindor. “When I think about ambidextrous leadership, in particular the innovation element, I think about both sides of the fence. I think about the innovation team, their goals and challenges; and the business side, and what my business goals are, and how they sometimes merge and meet in the middle, and sometimes they don’t.”

Adding The Balance of Ambidexterity

Collaboration is an important part of the process of ambidextrous innovation. It is this balance between personnel, departments and processes that can lead to both achieving large scale projects while making the small, incremental and iterative steps that lead to innovation. We asked ChatGPT for several tips on how to leverage ambidexterity in an organization:

  1. Foster an atmosphere of collaboration: Encourage cross-team communication and project collaboration to ensure that ideas are shared across departments, disciplines, and perspectives.
  2. Develop a culture of experimentation: Create an environment where new ideas can be tested and iterated on without fear of failure or punishment for taking risks.
  3. Embrace divergent thinking: Provide opportunities for employees to think outside the box by offering workshops on creativity, brainstorming sessions, hackathons, etc.
  4. Leverage technology: Implement tools like AI/ML algorithms to help generate innovative solutions faster and more efficiently than traditional methods alone can provide.
  5. Establish clear objectives: Make sure everyone is working towards the same goal by setting measurable targets with specific deadlines so everyone has something tangible to work towards together as a team or organization as a whole.

Adapting to the Three-Legged Stool

Ambidexterity in innovation is a key capability for organizations to stay competitive in today’s fast-changing markets. Adaptation and a faster response time are important to gain this skill. It also requires organizations to be able to identify, nurture, exploit, and leverage new ideas from different sources, while also maintaining existing capabilities. Organizations must have processes that allow them to quickly adapt their strategies in order to capitalize on new opportunities or respond rapidly when faced with changing market conditions.

The challenge can be that often there are different structures, cultures and processes for both the development of radical innovation in the future and incremental innovations of a more short-term variety. As noted in the article, “Innovation Ambidexterity and the Three-Legged Stool,” “Each type of innovation requires different—often opposing—structures, cultures, and processes. Thus, to become ambidextrous, companies must create a balanced mix of all three, each a leg in a three-legged stool.”

The article, written by Professor Janet Tinoco and published in the Pepperdine Graziadio Business School Journal, notes that the business process portion of the stool is what can ultimately bind the structure and culture together, to form a more solid mix for both types of innovation to thrive. Ultimately, “Firms can transform and achieve ambidexterity in innovation by employing prudent business processes that cumulatively impact radical and incremental innovation, thereby building the essential third leg of the stool.”

Video courtesy of IESE Business School

Contributor

  • Matt Kramer

    Matthew Kramer is the Digital Editor for All Things Insights & All Things Innovation. He has over 20 years of experience working in publishing and media companies, on a variety of business-to-business publications, websites and trade shows.

    View all posts
 
 

Related Content

Like a star or comet shooting out rays of light beams.
transformational innovation

The First Steps to Transformational Innovation

All Things Innovation’s annual roundtable discussion, held at the Front End of Innovation (FEI 2024) conference, tackled the big question: “Is tra…

Graphic features a kind of lightspeed with flashes of colors in the center.
human-centric innovation

Measuring the Human Element

The Front End of Innovation (FEI 2024) conference featured All Things Innovation’s annual roundtable discussion, which tackled the big question: “…

A mousetrap set with cheese ready and waiting.
collaboration

Capturing Innovation Engagement

All Things Innovation had a chance to chat with Termeh Rassi, Chief Strategy Officer & Editorial Director at Leonardo, at this year’s FEI 2024 confe…

A background of rising laser beams, kind of like a sunrise on the horizon.
innovation team

Attaining Zero to N Innovation

A highlight at this year’s Front End of Innovation (FEI 2024) was All Things Innovation’s annual roundtable discussion, which tackled the big ques…

Young woman (Gen Z) having her picture taken with a smartphone at outdoor cafe.
disruptive innovation

Gen Z on Corporate Innovation

Meet the generation disrupting the way we innovate: Generation Z. As Gen Z enters the workforce and embraces entrepreneurship, there’s a growing need…

Creator or entrepreneur sitting with laptop, business graphics swirling around him like thought bubbles.
partnerships

Creating a Venture Capital Mindset

Established corporate enterprises tend to struggle at times when they focus on innovation initiatives. Often, organizations are leery of throwing reso…

A colorful galaxy-like image with a lot of circles, stars and effects.
innovation culture

Is Transformational Innovation Possible?

One of the most interesting activities at this year’s Front End of Innovation (FEI 2024) was All Things Innovation’s annual roundtable discussion,…

A diamond and its facets.
digital transformation

Finding the Value of Innovation

Gail Martino, VP Partnerships, 387Labs, was on hand at FEI 2024 as a moderator for the Brunch with the Bots presentation on the final day of the confe…

Fireworks exploding in the night sky.
innovation culture

Unleashing Innovation

All Things Innovation was on hand at the recent FEI 2024 conference to discuss innovation with corporate changemakers. We caught up with Liza Sanchez,…

A spiral seashell.
innovation mindset

Supporting Agile Innovation

Often, when we think about large corporations, rapid innovation and agile development may not be the first principles that come to mind. Large corpora…

Closeup of the side of a sleek red racecar.
innovation mindset

Data-Driven: A Winning Formula for Innovation

Maximiliano Just, Vice President, Data Governance and Shared Platforms at a Fortune 100 company, was a speaker at the recent FEI 2024 conference. As i…

The closeup of a jet engine.
customer centricity

Creating a Culture of Experimentation

Many in the community feel that fostering a culture of innovation is paramount. A key to this is building a culture of experimentation. This stems fro…

An Olympic swimmer in the pool racing.
innovation leadership

Is Your Company Innovation Ready?

The term innovation readiness is often used to refer to an organization’s ability to develop and launch new products, services or ideas. Some may poin…

A sphere in space, with data points of light
Front End of Innovation

Innovation in Action: Trends from FEI 2024

This past June, the vibrant city of Boston, known for its trailblazing spirit, became the epicenter of innovation as it hosted the Front End of Innova…

Crumpled paper on top of idea/innovation sketch pad with drawing of light bulb.
innovation mindset

FEI 2024 Report: The Future of Innovation

A successful three-day event marked Front End of Innovation (FEI) 2024 in Boston, held June 10 to 12 at the Omni Hotel at the Seaport. A reenergized a…

Lifting a hand weight at the gym/fitness theme.
consumer insights

Harnessing the Power of Consumer Insights

Innovation doesn’t happen in a silo, and a great product or idea can only go so far on its own. Tapping into the pulse of your consumer is key to ta…

Man shouting into a large megaphone.
design thinking

Leaning into Crisis Innovation

In times of crisis, conventional wisdom seems to indicate that companies tighten the reins on personnel and their budgets, and that innovation efforts…

A white empty picture frame leaning on a white brick wall.
innovation systems

Selecting an Innovation Framework

The science of innovation, especially as seen through frameworks, is an important aspect of the operational process. With innovation a sometimes spraw…

A variety of ingredients in spoons. Diversity.
innovation talent

Creating the Right Innovation Team

Innovation was often seen as the task of a lone inventor, but that mindset has changed over the years. Rather than the solitary genius approach to inn…

Yellow and black Caution hazard lines on pavement.
innovation culture

Avoiding Innovation Traps

The road to innovation can sometimes be straight and unencumbered. But more than likely, it can also be a long and winding route, with many obstacles…

A bridge centered between two buildings.
generational gap

Bridging Generational Divides in Innovation

Some may call it the generational gap, whether it be in the workplace or the marketplace, but that gap also signals opportunity. The sheer diversity o…

Red warning light, signaling hazard.
innovation roadblocks

Moving Past Innovation Roadblocks

With the pace of change accelerating, fostering innovation in corporate enterprises can be a challenging task—a task that is very much dependent on…

Futuristic city at night with data points of light rising from the bottom.
data-driven innovation

Mapping Out the Data-Innovation Journey

This year, in our latest Innovation Perspectives Report, the editors of All Things Innovation brought together a cross-section of innovation, insights…

Bulletin board with post it notes. One in center says Make Things Happen.
innovation leadership

Managing Productive Innovation

Conservatively, I estimate that I’ve attended 20,000-plus meetings throughout my career. I’ll admit, many of them should have been replaced with email…

A blueprint with a pencil and ruler.
innovation talent

Innovation Principles, 7/7

Once adequate competency, support, and size of a new team are secured, clear direction based on a purposeful vision, alignment with a winning game pla…

coin operated binoculars and open blue sky
data science

The Road to FEI24: Analytics for Innovation

Anu Sundaram, Vice President, Business Analytics, Rue Gilt Groupe, is planning an interactive analytics session for FEI 2024, taking place this June….

A smiling little robot
robotics

The Road to FEI24: Brunch with the Bots

Samantha Johnson, Founder & CEO at Tatum Robotics, will take part in FEI 2024 in several ways, including participating in the keynote sessions, “Bru…

football chalk game plan
product development

Innovation Principles, 6/7

Development strategy (i.e., Game Plan) is a set of choices within applicable constraints and trade-offs that defines our development approach and posi…

explorer in a cave
behavioral insights

Applying AI to Anthropological Research

Agile research and methodologies are of primary importance to the innovation discipline, as they promote a more versatile, rapid, adaptive approach to…

net present value

Innovation Principles, 5/7

Gross Profit Margin and Net Present Value are two primary profitability indicators for evaluating an intended entrepreneurial offering. Even if suffic…

future of work

Gaining an Innovation Edge with Automation

With the focus on how artificial intelligence, as well as digital transformation efforts, can help streamline operations, it’s worth another look at…

startups

Creating the Right Innovation Partnership

Corporations often face many challenges when it comes to developing innovation in a fast, evolving market. They can face barriers such as inertia, the…

product innovation

Bringing Sales and Innovation Together

Just how can innovation and sales work together to find success? Too often, companies find themselves stuck in their respective departments and the si…

innovation principles

Innovation Principles, 4/7

The front end of innovation is a distinctly iterative endeavor based on human-centered, design-thinking principles. It could be represented by a spira…

innovation team

Winning the Innovation Strategy Game

We know that having a creative mindset can fuel innovation, and that fostering a culture of innovation is also important to get the job done. Yet ther…

innovation talent

Taking Next Steps with Innovation Talent

As we head into the new year, taking the next steps with innovation talent remains an important question to explore. With the competitive landscape in…

innovation talent

PIE: Get Your Slice of Success

How can someone really stand out and succeed as a corporate innovator, get the most exciting projects, or secure a promotion? This is a question I enc…

digital transformation

Shaping the Future with Disruptive Technology

As we head into 2024, innovation of all types, most especially in technology, will continue to disrupt, transform and impact our lives, from the workp…

innovation talent

Keeping Your Innovation Career Resilient

With the rise of technology, such as AI, impacting workers and workplaces, it’s safe to say the future of work is evolving—in innovation and in ma…

Front End of Innovation

Innovation Principles, 3/7

The main premise behind an integrated end-to-end continuum of innovation and new product development is that a holistic understanding of sequential de…

innovation culture

Embracing Open Innovation

Open innovation is a growing tactic for today’s globalized enterprises. Rather than focusing just on closed loop systems and internal sources, such…

digital natives

Shaping the Next Generation of Innovation

Generation Z is in a unique position as they are often viewed as one of the first to be shaped and influenced by technology such as the Internet, soci…

transformational innovation

Innovation Principles, 2/7

Successful innovation endeavors are built on creative tension between key enabling entrepreneurial trade-offs associated with four must-have constitue…

innovation impact

Measuring Innovation Performance

Innovation can be a key component to drive a company’s success and performance, in both short-term and long-term initiatives. Yet many executives gr…

innovation growth

Unlocking Business Growth Through Innovation

The business world is changing quickly for innovators and there is a growing and ever-present imperative to keep up. Business model transformations an…

technology

Living in A Digital Transformation World

Digital transformation (DX) has been a hot topic in the innovation space for some time, but the term can be easily misunderstood as well. As we accele…

transformational innovation

Innovation Principles, 1/7

Imagine a case where a company’s growth depends on an innovation involving complex cross-disciplinary technologies such as electro-mechanical hardwa…

self-disruption

Sustaining the Self-Disruption Journey

The adage “disrupt or be disrupted” may not necessarily always mean the same thing to the same companies. Even the original architects of disrupti…

disruptive innovation

Playing the Game of Disruption

At FEI, Angelina Carvajal, Strategy & Innovation Partner, Sr. Dir. (Optum Advisory), UnitedHealth Group, had a chance to share her thoughts on disrupt…

breakthrough innovation

Breaking Through Challenges to Problem Solve

While it’s important to learn from best practices from large and innovative enterprises, it’s also valuable to hear from the startup community. At…

long-term innovation

Powering Innovation’s Long-Term Play

Ishan Jaithwa, Manager, New Growth Areas, Cummins Inc., sat down with All Things Innovation’s Seth Adler at our studio at the FEI conference. Jaithw…

desirability

Design Thinking Faces the Pace of Change

Seth Adler of All Things Innovation recently caught up with Prapti Jha, T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, at this year’s FEI co…

innovation process

Opening the Doors of Innovation Perception

Seth Adler of All Things Innovation caught up with Cory Sorice, SVP and Chief Innovation Officer, Masonite International, during this year’s FEI con…

innovation theater

Beyond Innovation Theater

At FEI, All Things Innovation conducted a special roundtable, bringing cross industry, cross disciplinarians together to talk about transformation and…

technology

Supporting Data with Design Thinking

At FEI, All Things Innovation conducted a special roundtable, bringing cross industry, cross disciplinarians together to talk about transformation and…

transformational innovation

Achieving Transformational Innovation

At FEI, All Things Innovation conducted a special roundtable, bringing cross industry, cross disciplinarians together to talk about transformation and…

finance

The Finance Factor in Innovation

The finance function in an organization often gets tabbed as a bottom line-oriented, conservative department that more often than not stifles innovati…

chief strategy officer

Setting the Strategic Direction

A chief strategy officer (CSO) is increasingly becoming a more relevant element to a research and development team in an organization. An innovation t…

innovation culture

Managing the Marketing of Innovation

Even some of the best new innovations might fail if there’s no effective marketing behind the product or service. With an emphasis on cross-collabor…

innovation culture

Playing Moneyball for the Win

In the popular baseball movie “Moneyball,” the character Peter Brand (played by Jonah Hill) highlights the “epic failure” of MLB leadership in managin…

innovation mindset

Putting Together Your Innovation Team

As the community’s recent Innovation Spend & Trends Report indicated, innovation teams are not working in a bubble, or at least not as much as they…

digital transformation

The Progress of Innovation

Technology is shaping our society, taking us in new directions and playing a key role in our lives every day. These forces can disrupt, or delight, co…

disruption

Leading with Product Innovation

At its core, in the consumer packaged goods world, an innovative product can make an impact in the marketplace and stand out with a focus on newness….

co-creation

Generating Innovation Through Ideation

Ideation is often confused with innovation, along with other related terms regarding the creative process, such as brainstorming or design thinking. W…

human resources

Managing Talent to Drive Innovation

With the economy producing mixed signals, and companies often in a state of flux, managing innovation talent has never been a more challenging and imp…

disruptive innovation

Defining Disruptive Innovation

Disruptive innovation is often a phrase used to make a splash in the business world. Some may debate that the label has been applied carelessly at tim…

digital transformation

Going ‘All In’ On Business Transformation

There are many different types of business transformations at play in today’s corporate world. This could, for example, encompass the significant di…

sustaining innovation

Growing a Culture for Business Innovation

Whether it entails a large jump or a small step, the innovation pipeline for a business keeps it moving forward through a competitive landscape. Busin…

innovation strategy

Gaining True Value While Moving Forward

The All Things Innovation community came together in this Gathering on Innovation Strategy to drive immediate lessons learned through the first half o…

humanize data

Diving Into Humanity-Centric Innovation

With the continued emergence and evolving development of artificial intelligence, there rises a question of how humans and AI can work together more e…

human resources

Tapping Into the Innovation Talent Pipeline

In the last few years, the pandemic and a range of other economic factors have influenced the talent recruitment, development and retention practices…

human resources

Ignite a Culture of Innovation

From the successes to the failures, from the breakthroughs to the breaking points, the innovation community knows all too well that fostering a cultur…

innovation strategy

Innovation During A Downturn

Whether you believe the USA is headed toward or already in a recession, there are signs of a slowing or reversal of economic activity. Of the 15 metri…

successful innovation

Striving for Successful Innovation

In the quest for innovation, there is often a fine line between success and failure. The road to success is not always clear, easy or convenient. Howe…

inclusion

Innovation Diversity

Black, Indigenous and People of Color have always been leaders in innovation and it’s time for us to put that at the forefront. DEI, or Diversity Eq…

human resources

Fostering Innovation

When you start to talk that way and lead that way, people do feel more psychologically safe to support change and support innovation that’s happenin…

breakthrough innovation

Breakthrough Innovation

While the rest of the industry relies on iterative change, Alex Moyes explains the breakthrough innovation happening at Dominion Energy. “So Dominio…

innovation talent

Innovation Reality

When working remotely, the main challenge is bringing people into an office when they live across the country or around the world. The AES Corporation…

innovation talent

Control The Sails

Although the world was affected heavily with change in the last few years, not much in the business world has changed as far as topics and issues go….

innovation talent

Innovation Culture

Innovation starts with the employees of an organization. As we know, the people that work for a business are some of its greatest assets. In today’s…

innovation culture

Interaction Innovation

We are at a time in history of incredible change and technological innovations, such as the rise of machine intelligence, and companies who keep doing…

human-centric

Humanity-Centric Innovation

Humanity-centric innovation is the idea of solving the biggest problems facing humanity in an economically viable way. Pete Dulcamara, Chief Scientist…

technology

Measurable Innovation

Each company has their own KPIs that are important to their specific business in place to progress and be successful. Are people at the forefront of i…

innovation leadership

Certain Uncertainty

Life is uncertain in every way. It’s always interesting to meet new people and try new things. On the other hand, attackers may sometimes appear out o…

innovation mindset

Rolling Innovation

If you’ve done it once, you can do it again. Make sure to keep doing it, it’s rolling innovation. Amber Case sits down with us to discuss how impo…

transformation

Strategic Innovation

Any new concept or technological advancement will continue to change and advance. Landlines were commonplace before smartphones. Remember those? What…

Innovation Spend & Trends Report

The Innovation Spend & Trends Report has just been released onsite at FEI: Front End of Innovation. Be among the first to gain from this benchmarking…

transformation

Innovation Intelligence

It seems that innovation is one of the biggest buzzwords in business now. To sustain growth and be competitive in the marketplace, companies in every…

constant change

Innovation As Constant Change

The key strategy to a successful business is to know when they are being innovative or are just transforming their status quo according to market tren…