The Rise of the Ambidextrous Organization: The Secret Revolution Happening Right Under Your Nose

By Eric Zabiegalski

Research into formerly high performing organizations has consistently found that organizational exploitation drives out exploration. What does that mean? It’s simple: As organizations exploit the marketplace by doing what they do best for profit and market share, they consequently stop exploring and looking for new ideas; they sto

• Language: English
• Publisher: Business Research Consulting (BRC)
• Release date: Nov 14, 2019
• ISBN: 9781646333400

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Introduction

Here’s the bottom line regarding learning and organizations: Research into formerly high performing organizations has consistently found that organizational exploitation drives out exploration. What does that mean? It’s simple: As organizations exploit the marketplace by doing what they do best for profit and market share, they consequently stop exploring and looking for new ideas; they stop learning in critical ways that could guarantee future success. It’s not hard to do in companies, if you think about it. For one thing, it’s difficult to do two things at once, particularly if those two things appear to conflict with one another or be unrelated, requiring different thinking and acting. Secondly, there always seems to be some other alligators close to the boat that need immediate swatting before you can even think about exploring, being creative, or learning anything new. Companies that adopt this exploitation lather, rinse, and repeat mindset, however, risk losing the balance they once had between everyday performance and innovative creativity and the ability to leverage learning in new ways that guarantee sustained long-term success. To put this performance strategy into a sports metaphor, they’re setting themselves up for a great short game but no long one!

The Solution of Ambidexterity

If 40-plus years of research about exploitation and exploration says this is an inevitable dilemma, and it does, then what’s the solution? The solution is the practice of organizational ambidexterity, the ability to be simultaneously exploitative and explorative in the marketplace, managing both elements in a rhythmic balance and dance that promote both short- and long-term performance and success. Mastering ambidexterity is not easy and takes a certain amount of trust and grit; however, for the companies that adopt this model and routinely execute it, like Toyota and Google, it is a combination that works and works well.

Organizations seldom consider their historical behavior and are often unaware of the evolutionary changes that led them into this success trap of continually favoring exploitation over exploration. Some companies feel as though they lack the resources, knowledge, or ability to risk growing through exploration, while others fall into a pattern perpetuated by cultural or structural inertia, becoming too resistant to change either by norms, stories, and company rules (culture) or by having an organizational business structure that is too rigid to adopt anything but the smallest of changes (structural). When this happens, the organizations effectively become a one-trick pony. So, what does it take to have an ambidextrous organization—an AO?

Definitions

Before we dive into the types of organizational ambidexterity in an AO, let’s cover a few definitions.

Exploitation is the refinement of existing knowledge within an organization’s departments. It is associated with making existing improvements and incremental adjustments and increasing efficiency—in other words, it’s the business of doing better what you have already learned to