418: The Way to Nurture New Ideas, with Safi Bahcall
Coaching for Leaders
Dave Stachowiak
4.8 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 8 July 2019
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Safi Bahcall: Loonshots
Safi Bahcall is a second-generation physicist and a biotech entrepreneur. He co-founded a biotechnology company developing new drugs for cancer, leading its IPO and serving as its CEO for 13 years.
He worked with President Obama’s council of science advisors on the future of national research. Safi is the author of the book Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries*.
In this conversation, Safi and I discuss how leaders can work intentionally to nurture new ideas through three key practices. If you are an innovator (or leading an innovation team) and hearing the voices of the naysayers, this framework will help you begin nurturing new ideas more successfully.
Key Points
- A loonshot is a neglected project, widely dismissed, its champion written off as unhinged.
- The ice cube is an analogy for the soldiers and artists in the organization. This is called phase separation.
- The most effective leaders view their work as gardeners, gently cultivating news ideas and investigating with genuine curiosity.
- Leaders who have a heart for both their soldiers and their artists will support a dynamic equilibrium in their organizations.
- Most innovation fails in the transfer between the artists and the soldiers.
- Steve Jobs is an example of a leader who, for many years, refused to show heart — but discovered it later with fantastic success.
Resources Mentioned
- Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries* by Safi Bahcall
Book Notes
Download my highlights from Loonshots in PDF format (free membership required).
Related Episodes
- The Four Critical Stories Leaders Need For Influence, with David Hutchens (episode 148)
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- Get Better at Deep Listening, with Oscar Trimboli (episode 408)
Discover More
Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Most leaders and organizations recognize the importance of balancing the work of today |
| 0:06.4 | with the ideas that will become the work of tomorrow. |
| 0:10.4 | But almost none of us have been taught how to do this. |
| 0:13.0 | On this episode, what history, research, and science show to be the best ways to nurture new ideas. |
| 0:20.0 | This is Coaching for Leaders, episode 418. |
| 0:24.0 | Produced by Innovate Learning, Maximizing Human Potential. |
| 0:30.0 | Greetings to you from Orange County, California. This is coaching for leaders and I'm your |
| 0:38.4 | host Dave Stahoviac. Leaders aren't born, They're made. And this weekly show helps you discover leadership wisdom through insightful conversations. |
| 0:49.0 | A word that many of us are thinking about often in our organizations is the word innovation. |
| 0:55.2 | How do we continue to do the good work that our organization has been doing at the same time innovate |
| 1:01.7 | for the future, either the next product or service or perhaps making the current existing work of the |
| 1:08.1 | organization a lot better. Today's guest an expert in this for sure as someone that's going to help us to really frame our |
| 1:16.2 | thinking on this more importantly thinking that can drive us to have the best |
| 1:20.6 | behaviors for our organizations and as you'll hear about today |
| 1:23.7 | really create the structure that will make that work. I'm so glad to welcome to the |
| 1:27.3 | show Safi Bacall. He is a second generation physicist the son of two |
| 1:32.1 | astrophysicists and a biotech |
| 1:34.5 | entrepreneur he's a PhD out of Stanford and he co-founded a biotechnology company |
| 1:39.5 | developing new drugs for cancer leading its IPO and serving as its CEO for 13 years. |
| 1:46.0 | Safi has presented at approximately 130 banking conferences, investor events, and medical meetings around the world, as well as at leading |
| 1:55.3 | academic institutions. |
| 1:57.1 | He worked with President Obama's Council of Science Advisors on the Future of National |
... |
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