S7 Ep9: Exponential Growth with Salim Ismail

This week on The Evolving Leader podcast, hosts Jean Gomes and Scott Allender spend an hour with Salim Ismail. In 2011, Salim Ismail co-wrote ‘Exponential Organizations’, a book that has since been widely read by CEOs who are looking for a new way to navigate uncertainty and embrace disruptive technologies and business models. In 2023 Salim and his co-authors updated the book and during this conversation he talks to Jean and Scott about ‘Exponential Organizations ExO 2.0’.

Salim is also the founder and chairman of OpenExO which helps companies implement the ExO playbook. He is a serial entrepreneur, the Founding Executive Director of Singularity University and serves on the board of the XPRIZE Foundation, and all of that is really just scratching the surface as to the work that Salim Ismail is part of.

TOPICS INCLUDED IN THIS CONVERSATION INCLUDE:
Core Principles of Exponential Organizations
The Exponential Mind Map and Hyper Scaling
Challenges and Successes in Adopting Exponential Organizations
The Role of Purpose in Exponential Organizations
The Impact of AI on Organizations
Navigating the Unknown and Embracing Technology
The Future of Leadership and Institutional Evolution

00:00 Introduction
03:54 What are the core principles of exponential organizations?
06:01 At the start of the book, you recap the ExO mindmap, which is now almost like a mental tattoo for many leaders. What’s the origin story and what was the source of why and how these companies thought and acted so differently from conventional organisations?
08:15 Since Exponential Organizations was first published, a lot has changed, particularly the sheer speed at which new players are getting to scale. Can you bring this life for us?
10:48 In organizations where they are trying to stick with the status quo, what are some of the challenges that you are seeing in changing their mindset and encouraging them to adopt the playbook?
14:34 You mention that MBAs around the world are not taking on the ExO playbook and instead stick with the old way of thinking. Is that really still the same, it hasn’t changed?
15:57 You have a chapter which I love the title of, The Death of the Linear Organisation. Can we talk about embracing a non-linear approach and what that means to our conventional ways of thinking and structuring organisations?
19:29 When you’re talking to a CEO about the shift from a conventional linear organization to this ecosystem approach that can adapt to the opportunities and challenges facing it, what do they need to do as an individual to make that change?
25:53 Can we talk about what an MTP is, and the value it enables?
28:59 How is/will AI change your work?
32:01 As AI comes into more of our lives, what do organizations need to do to ensure that it lifts people up, and that you get more of the precious aspects of human value creation, decision making, creativity, relationships etc, rather than them being pushed down into serving the technology?
34:00 As you work with a leader who wants to adopt these principles and push towards the unknown, how do you help an organization have a tolerance for the unknown with an optimism for what might be possible in adopting these principles?
37:01 What is on the horizon for you right now? What are you excited about in terms of trying to bring more of the thinking here to the wider world?
41:56 Can you give us your insights into how our institutions need to evolve?
46:38 If you were sitting down with a CEO new to the ExO playbook, what would you advise them to do to start thinking about taking the first steps?
47:54 If you were sitting down with a young person and they were asking you for advice about how to think about the future, where would you start that conversation?
50:08 What haven’t we talked about that’s really important to you?
52:20 What’s the mindset that you struggle most with?


#podcast #mindset #ExO #futureleadership