Risk management is essential, but it shouldn’t stifle innovation. I learned early on in my career, especially as I delved into innovation, that risk is something to be managed, but it shouldn’t lead anything. You need to be able to apply risk as a treatment, or a layer or a lens to what you’re doing. But if you lead with risk, you hinder things like innovation. What I mean by that is you have to allow people to fail. Failing is managing risk. If you experiment early, if you’re experimenting with LLMs and genAI, bring your risk partner along, but understand what the boundaries are from your risk partner. Don’t let that lead what you’re doing, and fail as early as possible, learn from it, manage the risks along the way.
By adopting a lean startup approach, organizations can balance experimentation with risk mitigation. Early failures can be valuable learning experiences when approached with a growth mindset. Collaborating with risk management teams can help establish boundaries while fostering a culture of innovation.
This creates a promising opportunity to enhance the creativity and creative thinking skills of executive teams. To fully leverage the potential of AI, executives must generate innovative ideas and use cases that provide a competitive advantage. It’s essential to remember that AI is a tool, and its effectiveness depends on the user’s ability to utilize it effectively. As Daniel Pink predicted in his book “A Whole New Mind,” right-brain thinkers will take over the world. He was not wrong, and here we are. Bring on the creatives!
