Building Moonshots: 50+ Ways To Turn Radical Ideas Into Reality

In this Book

• Introduction
• Always Focus on the Long View—Making the World a Better Place Requires Solutions That are Not Constrained By Today, Or Even Tomorrow
• Start from the Almost Impossible—Moonshot Leaders Must Manage Across All Four Innovation Horizons
• Never Be Surprised—Being Strategically Paranoid Enables an Organization to Move Ahead of Potential Competition
• Fund for Breakthroughs—Funding Breakthrough Ideas, Inventions, and Innovation Requires You to Adopt Opportunistic Financing Methods
• Plan to Adopt Shiny Things—Building an Innovative Team Means You Will Always Be Learning New Ideas and Technologies
• Be an Optimist—Choosing to Have an Optimistic Outlook is a Visionary's Most Powerful Tool
• Filter the Noise—Adopting Drucker's Eight Sources For Innovation Can Power Your Discovery Engine
• Collect a Menagerie—Hunting For Rhinos, Swans, and Horses Provides a Quick Start For Your Opportunity Searches
• Devour Hard Science Fiction—Reading Hard Science Fiction as a Primary Source of Inspiration Puts You in Great Company
• Engage with Esoteric STEM—Building a Way For Your Team to Regularly Discover, Test, and Assess Novel Research Helps You Get a Step Ahead of Competitors
• Find Your Challenge—Participating in or Observing Open Challenges Can Feed Your Idea and Talent Pipeline
• Consume Research—Starting Every Project With a Goal of Finding Who Else Has Asked Your Starting Question Can Quickly Move You Two Steps Ahead
• Start by Asking What If … ?—Imagining a Better Future is the First Step in Building the Solutions That Will Define It
• Anchor in a Better Future—Defining Your Moonshot Change By Positive Outcomes Opens Minds and Opportunities
• Trust That the Future is Not Zero-Sum—Knowing That Multiple Solutions Will Succeed Means You Can't Be Limited By Today's Rules
• Evangelize the Future—Telling Your Story With Words, Objects, Images, and Experiences Engages the World in Your Vision
• Push the Boundaries of Your Work—Tying Together Disparate Ideas Will Create Whole New Fields and the Potential For New Solutions
• Be Visionary—Sharing A Vision of a Better World Converts Others Into Seeing The Near-Impossible as Possible
• Get Ahead of Your Customers—Mixing Demographic, Generational, And User Field Data Can Reveal Changes in Future Customer Needs
• Look to Tipping Points—Using Tomorrow's Standards Today Can Help a Team to Prioritize Milestones
• Reason Back—Working Backward from Your Best End Game Helps to Create Better, Bolder Milestones
• Adopt Bold Metrics—Using Real Numbers in Your Goals Helps You to Choose What You Will Measure
• Plan for Targets to Evolve—Being Willing to Revise Your Goals as You Experience Success Helps You to Accelerate
• Be Responsible Visionaries—Starting with a Caretaker Mindset Means That Your Solution Won't Become a Future Problem
• Make Your Ideas Compete—Separating Ideas from Their Owners Helps You Move From Criticism to Critique
• Do the Hard Part Daily—Continuously Building The Hardest Part First Helps You to Convert Unknowns Into Uncertainties
• Go Deepwith Emtech—Choosing to Build with Cutting-Edge Technologies Enables You To Outpace Your Market
• Get to Action—Merely Starting the Process of Inventing Can Move Teams To Results
• Build to Learn—Building the Future Requires Teams to Test Their Critical Experiences and Functions
• Share Proofs of Concept Early and Often—Putting the Impossible Into Customer's Hands Lets You Own Their Hearts and Minds
• Recruit a Challenge Board—Creating Honest Oversight Helps to Drive You and Your Team Forward
• Build Foundations—Funding New Platforms Enables a Variety of Winning Solutions to Emerge and Evolve
• Spread Your Bets—Investing in Diversified Ideas and Opportunities Increases Your Chances of Winning
• Play Games—Pretesting Your Plans in Wargames Creates a Deep Understanding of Your Winning Options
• Double Down on Breakthroughs—Launching on the Back of Incipient Breakthroughs Lets You Accelerate Faster
• Time Your Bets—Asking “When?” is the Most Important Question When Starting a Revolution
• Invest in the Future Ecosystem—Funding the Future Requires Every Part of the Economy To Chip In
• Leverage Knowledge Discrepancies—Applying Winning Approaches from other Fields May Offer Your Moonshot a Shortcut
• Seed New Fields—Adding New Players and Ideas Creates a Foundation for the Next Ecosystem
• Develop Perpetual Pipelines—Investing in the Near Term Through Long Term Creates Continuous Opportunities
• Publish Your Moonshots Metrics—Sharing Ambitious Models and Milestones Publicly Brings Resources
• Fund the Handoffs—Focusing on the Transitions from Concept to Solution Speeds the Process
• Be a Talent Magnet—Striving to Be the Best Team Makes the Best People Want To Work With You
• Foster a Skunkworks Culture—Adopting Exceptional Practices Across an Organization Can Provide a Sense of Destiny
• Invite Radical Collaboration—Bringing Your Team Into the Vision Execution Ensures Greater Ownership
• Chase Brains—Creating a Talent Pipeline Lays the Path to Long‐Term Success
• Hire for Unique Skills—Hiring Box Checkers Will Rarely Lead to Revolutions
• Find Your Cluster—Stealing from the Best Requires a Rich Talent Pool and Knowledge Spillover
• Practice Winning—Sandboxing Provides the Perfect Test Environment for Ideas, Teams, and Potential Customers
• Play to Your Advantage—Being First, Fast, or Last is a Deliberate Decision in an Innovation Race
• Use Others’ Solutions as Leverage—Finding Best-of-Breed Partners Helps Teams Get Serious About Success
• Cannibalize Your Success—Winning the Future Requires You to Change the Game You are Playing
• Scale Fast and Slow—Knowing When to Run or Crawl is Crucial on the Journey from Concept to Market
• Play an Infinite Game—Winning Never Ends, So Losing is Merely a Temporary Setback