Building workplaces for long-term success, with Howard Yu

The Happy Manifesto

Before chasing the latest technologies or trends, organisations need to focus on building a strong foundation and core capabilities. They need a culture that encourages learning, collaboration, and transparency, and to have leadership that prioritises long-term success over short-term gains.

In this episode, Henry is joined by Howard Yu, a renowned strategist and innovation expert, a Thinkers 50 strategy award winner, and the Lego Professor of Innovation and Management at the IMD business school in Switzerland. With extensive experience studying and analysing companies' longevity and their ability to sustain new growth, Howard is now the author of Leap, a book exploring how successful companies have been able to transform themselves and adapt to new challenges.

Howard’s three tips for a happy workplace

1. Document and share as much as possible, providing access for all employees so they can understand the decisions the company is making.
2. Create a data-rich work environment where openly discussing and documenting failed experiments is encouraged. Capture realtime decision-making processes so everyone can learn from their mistakes.
3. Allow independent teams to operate as micro-enterprises, or adopt Jeff Bezos’ “two pizza” rule.

Links

• Connect with Howard via LinkedIn
• Leap: How to Thrive in a World Where Everything Can Be Copied – Howard’s book
• Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making, by Tony Fadell
• The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail, by Clayton Christensen
• Amazon’s Two Pizza Rule: one simple rule for maximising meeting effectiveness