The Green Room podcast
Why do some people see the future first?
The best ideas seem obvious in hindsight. So how can we all spot opportunities – and turn them into something real?
Start by being curious
Seeing the future is one thing. Building it is another.
Imagine seeing an opportunity, a problem or a completely different way forward before anyone else does. Would you trust what you see – or just assume everyone else must know better?
Pioneers are often remembered as extraordinary individuals who saw the future first. But noticing what others miss is only the beginning. An idea still needs the right timing, support and discipline to move from curiosity to impact.
That can prove difficult though when businesses depend on evidence. By the time an idea is proven, your competitors may already be acting on it.
In the opening episode of Series 15, we ask whether pioneering is a rare personality trait – or is it something we can all do? And is progress driven by one person, or by how leaders, teams and organisations work together to help a bold idea travel?
Watch below, or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. Read the transcript here.
Great organisations have curiosity at their heart. But the best team that curiosity with discipline, and I think that's probably actually the unique quality of pioneers.
Scott Campbell – AI Advantage partner, Deloitte
“If you don’t have discipline, it lies on the cutting room floor.”
“Great organisations have curiosity at their heart.”
It’s the quality that gets you thinking. Are we doing this because it works, or because we’ve always done it this way? It’s what allows people to imagine different futures before there’s clear proof they’re worth pursuing. But without the discipline to execute on those ideas, potential “lies on the cutting room floor”, as Scott Campbell, AI Advantage partner at Deloitte puts it.
The challenge is that curiosity often looks like a cost before it proves to be an opportunity. So experimentation can seem inefficient to start with because the payoff from R&D is rarely immediate. But while many organisations focus on return on investment, Scott encourages leaders to consider a second metric: risk of inaction.
For Anne-Marie Imafidon, Co-founder and CEO of Stemettes, the challenge is equally human. “I genuinely believe most folks, if they’re paying attention, can see problems,” she says. But identifying an opportunity is one thing. Deciding it’s urgent enough to pursue, and having the confidence, support and resource to act on it, is something else entirely.
"The pioneer is the collective.”
Often when we think of a pioneer, we picture lone visionaries, singular extraordinary minds. But Anne-Marie sees them differently. “The pioneer isn't the singular person. I think the pioneer is the collective. And so I think everybody has a role to play in pioneering.”
Scott Campbell echoes this. His experience has led him to believe that “small, highly focussed, multidisciplinary teams can change the world” – a far cry from the image of the lone pioneer.
An idea doesn’t automatically become the future. They need to be backed, adopted and scaled. Scott uses the image of the “pioneer, settler, farmer”; one group discovers the path, another helps ground and embed it, and another helps it reach more people. And he believes you need all three.
For Anne-Marie, that’s important because progress isn’t neutral. How does one breakthrough affect different groups? Who benefits? Whose perspective is missing? Those questions can’t be answered by one person alone, however pioneering they may be.
Can every person – and organisation – become a pioneer?
Hear more from Anne-Marie Imafidon and Scott Campbell as they explore what pioneers notice, what matters beyond curiosity, and how ideas become lasting progress.
How can organisations create space for experimentation? Whose perspectives should organisations listen to more closely? And what practical steps can leaders take to help good ideas travel further through their teams and organisations?
Watch below, or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Read the transcript here.
It's not about folks all heading towards one pioneer archetype, but it's about environments that allow folks to pioneer together.
Anne-Marie Imafidon – Co-founder and CEO of Stemettes
Let’s make this work.
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