Ambidexterity - now or never?! Driving the race car through the jungle?

"Ambidexterity" is not a disease... but according to the Duden dictionary: "Noun, feminine - Ambidexterity, equal skill of both hands"

What does this mean in the business world? About 8 years ago, I helped my first mentee write her thesis on ambidexterity; apparently, the German word did not exist back then. At that time, it was more about general revolutionary - today we would say disruptive - strategic changes and the introduction of innovations while simultaneously (!) improving the efficiency of existing offerings, processes, and systems evolutionarily. In the age of digitalization, the initiator of the "Anonymous Agilists," Stefan Hoch, recently summed it up very well in a workshop session: Companies need, on the one hand, their "highway" main business, which, in its mass over the years, has generated revenues and profits like a well-tuned race car and continues to evolve incrementally. On the other hand, "off-road" new terrain, i.e., new business ideas, need to be explored to discover and initiate future-oriented business fields - this requires a different vehicle, a Jeep, i.e., different ways of thinking and behaving outside the highway tunnel, different (agile) methods and (IT) tools, and different organizational forms such as cross-silo squads as seen at the digital music provider Spotify. As emphasized by the CSO of a traditional German market leader, it is important to win over the CEO with jungle initiatives, and his approval for repairing the highways often follows almost automatically. Conversely, a managing director may be bored with the details of highway repairs - depending on the preferences of the top management (e.g., dominant or conscientious personality traits play a role). Why "Ambidexterity - now or never?" Especially when companies are currently spinning off cool innovation hubs with stylish furnishings, certain feelings arise naturally among many people in the "remaining or core company," ranging from interest, to incomprehension, to envy; this happens automatically among employees as well as among executives up to the top level. Therefore, it is important to act now and create mutual understanding at all levels that it is not about "either or" or about "better or worse," or about "more important or less important." The race car with its drivers (employees and executives), as well as the Jeep and its drivers, all have their justification and value creation - sometimes more visible and clearly quantifiable in today's KPIs, sometimes less (especially in future initiatives). It all starts with mutual knowledge and also ambivalence-tolerant recognition of each other's "vehicles": Open the hood, provide deeper insights, so that everything does not happen behind closed doors. Perhaps, if necessary, allow someone to experience a test drive in the other vehicle, for example, observe, learn, and maybe even work in the other form for 1-2 days: Many ideas about the engine, steering, etc., can probably be used on the highway and in the jungle, but certainly not all - for example, soft suspension plays a special role in the jungle, e.g., Planning Poker as an agile methodology is more suitable for new software development. So, please do not try to rush through the jungle with your possibly even lowered race car with a sledgehammer (among other things, as an order from above)! Multimodal corporate management is by no means an easier undertaking and requires careful ambidextrous transformation management! If you want to learn more about this or want to take advantage of our support, feel free to contact us and visit the Agile Transformation Summit.