Manage episode 520810720 series 3367134
What if the best map for tomorrow’s chaos comes from a chef, a nappy, and a medieval wine press? We dive into epic disruptions—the kind that turn what’s complex and costly into something simple and affordable—and trace the repeatable patterns behind them. Scott Anthony, clinical professor at Tuck and longtime collaborator of Clayton Christensen, joins us to unpack the behaviours, structures and stories that help leaders steer into uncertainty instead of spinning out.
We start with an unexpected icon: Julia Child. Long before streaming tutorials, she translated elite French technique into home‑kitchen clarity through curiosity, collaboration and relentless experiments. That same pattern powers P&G’s Pampers, which only succeeded after multiple failed tests in technology, price and marketing. The takeaway is practical: speed to learning beats speed to launch, and patience, persistence and playful testing turn false starts into insight.
Then we connect dots across centuries. The printing press wasn’t a single eureka moment but a recombination of existing parts—presses from a wine region, metalworking, ink and paper—showing how exaptation and intersections fuel breakthroughs. We bring that lens to AI, arguing that wisdom is the real unlock: asking sharper questions, judging outputs and choosing the hard way when it matters. Along the way, we meet the “ghosts” that haunt organisations—past traumas, present patterns and future fears—that quietly block rational change, as seen in the classic mini mill versus integrated steel story.
If you lead in a shifting market, you’ll leave with a compact playbook: define clear hypotheses, set learning objectives, make predictions, execute tightly and reflect with discipline. Create spaces for play to surface anomalies. Name your ghosts so they don’t run the room. If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a colleague who wrestles with change and leave a quick review—what ghost is strongest in your world?
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Chapters
1. Epic Disruptions with Scott Anthony (00:00:00)
2. Imperfect Ideas And Scientific Method (00:01:34)
3. Guest Bio And Book Overview (00:02:18)
4. Defining Epic Disruption With Computing (00:03:58)
5. Why Disruption Literacy Matters Now (00:05:23)
6. Julia Child As A Disruptive Innovator (00:09:55)
7. AI, Wisdom, And Learning The Hard Way (00:13:17)
8. Corporate Play, Experimentation, Future Episode (00:17:27)
9. P&G Pampers: Patient Persistence (00:18:08)
10. Serendipity, Anomalies, And Reframing (00:22:09)
11. Scientific Method Meets Strategy (00:23:01)
12. Exaptation And The Printing Press (00:24:47)
13. Steel Mini Mills And Organisational Ghosts (00:28:23)
14. Three Questions To Close (00:34:07)
41 episodes