Innovation and Adaptation in Times of Disruption with Francis Cholle

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Hey, I'd like to welcome you to another episode of the Mission Matters business podcast, your source for all things business. My name is Adam Torres. You can follow me on Instagram @AskAdam. Torres, keep up with my book releases, book tour schedule, signed, all that other good stuff. Always love to connect with you there. And as always, if you'd like to apply to become a co author of one of my upcoming books, just head on over to the website Mission Matters Calm and click on Become an author to apply. Alright, today I have Francis Shoal on the line and he's founder, CEO and president over at the Human Company and Squircle Academy. And he's also author of Squircle A New Way to Think for a New World, which is a best selling book on Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Barnes & Noble and Amazon. Fr. Welcome to the.

Show. Thank you, Adam. I'm very happy to be with you and thank you for all our listeners.

Today. All right, so I'm excited to get into today's topic. So we got a lot to cover today, but you're the guy I want on the show to do this. So we're going to talk about innovation and adaptation in times of disruption. But before we get into that, I do want to spend a moment or two and talk a little bit more about what you're doing over at the Human Company and Squircle Academy. So tell us a little bit more about your companies, please.

Sure. So my work really consists in bringing deep thinking and the latest research in cognitive science to help organizations solve complex problems and adapt, innovate and thrive in disruption. And I will explain what deep thinking is it's really going beyond the logical mind which can only say right or wrong, taller or shorter. And of course there's many more neural cities to life. And in those nuances are the solutions of today and.

Tomorrow.

So I want to just dive right into this topic. So innovation and adaptation in times of disruption. First thing first, I think a great place for us to start. So why do companies have such a hard time.

Innovating?

There's research there that innovation is about implementation much more than it is about ideation. That's research that was conducted by McKinsey with about six or seven thousand executives across industries around the world. And they've conducted that research for many years over. And what it showed is that it's really about mobilizing people around those new solutions that come out of the innovation funnel. And the challenge is to get people to change behaviors, to adopt those innovations and make them possible in the process of producing them, selling them. Most organizations are all about creativity and ideation, but that has a lot of implications because you're missing out on really what will be the success of innovation, which is getting people to adopt internally through the funnel, middle of the funnel and at the exit of the funnel, those new solutions. So it's a matter of focus, not on the top of the funnel, but much more in the middle. And the end of it. It's a matter of capabilities, internally, talent and mindset. And the mindset is not so much having a creative mindset as having a mindset of capacity to change, adaptability, ability to adopt something new. So that's where the difference is. And that's what actually unfortunately is not focused enough by organizations, the more mundane aspect of innovation and less the hyper creative aspect of.

Innovation.

So and to me, I love people that quantify, measure and help companies innovate and boost innovation. Because to me, like sometimes there's these magic moments in different companies when they're able to do something and it's.

Like, oh, if we could only capture.

That and put it in a bottle and if we can use that again and it's not just this like event and if it can be a culture, if it can be a change, and if we can do this often, I mean, what an amazing thing. It doesn't have to be like a miracle or this one time thing. How do you, how do you help clients really like boost innovation or how do you help people boost innovation? Because I think there's some people listening right now that don't necessarily that see innovation is maybe like an event and it does it not like a repeatable.

Process? So actually it is. What we do is we assess teams. We assess teams to see where their strengths are and their opportunities when it comes to innovation. And innovation really has four the ideation. Actually the first one would be more the empathizing with the end user, whether it's the customer, whether it's a consumer, whether it's internally, your employees. And looking at how you can really best human centric design. The second one is once you've really understood from within the need for the innovation, then let's ideate around this, okay, we understood the person that's idea from that really intimate need. And once you've done this, then you need to make sure that the ideas you came up with could be calibrated within the time you have the resources, you have the regulations of your industry, the budget available, the capabilities internally. And then finally, once you come up with understanding intimately the need, ideating around the need, calibrating the solutions that you came up with.

To make sure that you can do them, then you have to actually execute and turn that creative idea into a prototype, an innovative prototype for that solution that you want to put on the market. So those are four stages. And what we do is we make sure two things. One, that everybody feels included in the process of innovation. And we can do this because now we've identified four profiles that are the four profiles of our model. So everybody falls somewhere on our model. And wherever you fall, you will have a role. Not only will you have a role, but you must have a role because those four voices are essential to make innovation happen. And then finally, because you've included everybody from the get go and everybody has a sense that they can contribute, whether they worked on the project or whether they work on the next one, they know that they can contribute to it. Therefore, what I call the cancer of innovation inertia has been taken care of because everybody's included in the idea that innovation will happen in the organization and everybody can contribute to make it happen. So when you don't include people from the get go, what do you have? You have at best people who don't contribute, and at worst people who resist the idea that it did not contribute to develop. So with this approach, assessing your team, telling and giving them feedback as to where they can fit in the process innovation, everybody feels included. You can build teams that are fitted for the four stages of the innovation process and you can have emotional engagement in the adoption.

Process.

So I know at the human company you work with larger organizations and I know, at squarekle Academy, it's more, it's more online and more digital. So it's geared and aimed towards some of your smaller business owners that can work at their pace. But I'm curious, do these strategies work for both large and small businesses? Because I know there's both sides of the spectrum listening right now. So there's those executives that are in charge of really large companies listening, but then we also have our small business owners listening too. And I know sometimes people think like, oh, that's for those guys, not for us. Does this work across the board, this.

Process? It absolutely does. First of all, innovation is a must for every size of company because the market is moving so fast today, the environment is so volatile. So innovation is a must have. Adaptation is a must have. That's the one thing. So it's on the table of every business owner, every leader, every executive. The second thing is, as you can hear, it's really a human issue. You know, it's how do you harness talent, how do you mirror talent, how do you put talent together, how you get teams to work together from a place that suited with a business challenge at hand. So whether you have a team of 10 or whether you have a company of 10,000, this is the same. And by the way, we offer what we do to a vast variety of industries and size of companies and we've done that around the world. The methodology is totally agnostic in terms of size of company, in terms of industry and in terms of region of the world. Also developed a nonprofit organization to help women entrepreneurs, women business owners. We work with the national association of Women Business Owners in the California chapter and we have small business owners and they really thrive at the methodology that we offer. They really get it. And that's made a difference in their organizations both as leaders and with their.

Teams. So I hear these words used often, you know, creativity, agility, and much along the same vein as my previous question about innovation, it being this one time event, like how do you help people with creativity and agility? Like, how is that? Like, is there a process also for that? Like, how's that.

Done? Yeah, sure. That's a great question, Adam. So the first thing to recognize that we are all natural adapters. We are all natural born adapters and creatives. That's just to be, to be human. You constantly adapt, whether it's driving your car, whether it's walking on the street, whether it's educating your children. So we are all constantly adapting and creating new ways of doing things, whether we notice it or Not. This is our human nature now that adaptation and creativity lived mostly in instinct, in your guts, in your body. This is how you access creativity. Why? Because what you have in your mind, your logical mind, something that you already know, okay, that is in the square of what you know. Creativity has to really go out of the square of what you know. And if it's not in your mind, it's in your body. And what you do when you stimulate your team is you get them to play. Actually, that's the most operational way, is to play. But to play is not something, you know, it's not something artificial. That's something that's at the core of what it means to be human. You know, when you're a child, you're on the floor and you have dead leaves on the floor, and, you know, you starting imagining stories and. And you create characters or whatever it is, okay? You just, like, throw them in the air. You play. You're not panning them up, measuring them and selling them, okay? So, you know, we are playful by nature and we are efficient by culture and by necessity. So what's important when it comes to adaptability and creativity is to first recognize it's something natural, it's not something to be learned. We have to unlearn the way we've been trained to be productive and to be organized. And once you allow that, and the best way to do it is through play. So we organize games, series games, to show people how they can access their creativity and agility through games.

That bring people to work together, produce results, and do it in very, very innovative ways, very creative and adaptive way. And once they've done it through game, then they can replicate it in business. So it's not teach anything. It's revealing to people what's already inside of them, and they love it because there's nothing to learn. And to unlearn is actually a very pleasant process, because what you do in the unlearning process is you're just being more human, you're being more yourself, you're being more natural. And that brings a lot of energy, a lot of enthusiasm, a great sense of possibility. And it brings results, but in a different way than aiming at it like the arrow of the bow going to the target. This is not the way you get to creativity and.

Agility. Well, Francis, I can tell you that you have given me some things to think about in my organization and the way that we operate going forward. And I bet some of the business owners listening, you've done the exact same thing for them. So first off, just want to thank you for coming on the show. But I also want to give you an opportunity to, you know, to leave some contact information. I know there's some business owners, entrepreneurs and executives out there that could benefit from connecting with you and your team over at the human company or at Squircle Academy. And I know that's the digital, digital presence there. So what's the best way for people to follow up with you and your team in the.

Connect? Sure, absolutely. So why don't you text the word squircle S Q U I R C L e squircle to number 484848. So text the word squircle S Q U I R C L e.

To the number 48. 48. 48. You will immediately receive an assessment which will give you a lot of insights and get you ahead of the curve when it comes to adaptation, innovation in your company as an executive. And you'll learn a lot of things about your teams. You'll get a 20 page report and that's the fastest way to get in contact with us. Now if you want to book a consultation with me, go to squirrelacademy.com and scroll down and you'll see. Book a consultation and we can spend 10, 15 minutes. If you've not taken the test yet, you can take it only three minutes. If you already have taken it, then we'll go and we'll jump right into your profile and discuss it and you'll gain insights to apply exactly what I explained today in three very simple steps that can get you far ahead of competition only in 15, 20 minutes of conversation. And Adam, do the same. Take the test and call me up. I'll help you with the.

Organization. Fantastic. Well Francis, been awesome having you on the show today. Really appreciate it. And to the audience as always, thank you for tuning in. If you are a first time listener, do not forget hit that subscribe button. Would have love to have you come back and listen to some more episodes. We're working hard to get you good knowledge over here and if you're watching this on our YouTube channel, don't forget hit the subscribe button there. But also leave us some comments on the video. Love to know what kind of projects and things that you're working on. And Francis, thanks again for coming.

On the show but of course, thank you Adam and thank you to your listeners.