The other “F” Word: Embracing failure to elevate human ingenuity in the AI era with professor and author John Danner

Poets & Thinkers

What if our fixation on avoiding failure is the very thing blocking us from building organizations that maximize human ingenuity? And why is this business critical in the AI age?

In this episode of Poets & Thinkers, we explore the intersection of leadership, innovation, and human potential with John Danner, renowned business advisor, professor, and bestselling author. Drawing on his extensive experience teaching at UC Berkeley and Princeton while advising leaders across sectors, John challenges conventional wisdom about what drives organizational success in our rapidly evolving AI-everything world.

John takes us on a journey through what he calls the three fundamental organizational pursuits – growth, innovation, and engagement – and reveals why they all depend on the one thing leaders often fear most: failure. He explains why the status quo serves as the greatest obstacle to progress and how our natural human bias toward familiarity creates resistance to change. Through compelling insights and personal anecdotes from decades of personal experience, John illuminates how fear silences organizational creativity while analyzing startling Gallup research showing only 20% of employees globally are truly engaged in their work.

As we navigate the profound transformation brought by AI and other technologies, John presents a critical fork in the road: organizations can pursue "AI to the max" with minimal human input, or they can embrace a more humanistic model built on human ingenuity, imagination, and collaboration. His vision for “invitational leadership” offers a compelling alternative to extractive models that have dominated business thinking for generations.

In this discussion, we explore:

• Why failure is the unavoidable companion to genuine growth and innovation
• How fear serves as the “border patrol” for the status quo in organizations
• The alarming reality that only one in five employees globally is engaged at work
• The third revolutionary period we’re entering: the inclusion challenge
• Why leaders must shift from extraction to resourcefulness in building sustainable organizations
• The power of “invitational leadership” in unleashing human creativity at all levels

This episode is an invitation to reimagine leadership for a more human-centered future, challenging us to develop organizational cultures where everyone – not just an elite few – can contribute their inherent creativity and imagination.

Topics

03:10 - The three fundamentals every organization strives for: growth, innovation, and engagement

04:20 - How growth, innovation, and engagement all depend on failure

06:30 - The status quo as the primary obstacle to change and improvement

08:50 - The interconnection between fear, feedback, and failure in organizational culture

12:00 - Leaders acknowledging their own fallibility to create psychological safety

13:10 - Gallup research on employee engagement: only 20% engaged, 15% actively disengaged

15:10 - The concept of “growth for both” – aligning organizational and individual growth

17:30 - The three revolutionary periods: industrial, information, and now the inclusion challenge

21:00 - Two possible futures: “AI to the max” versus human ingenuity and imagination

26:00 - Challenging extractive business models in favor of resourcefulness

28:10 - Shifting from “l

Send us a text

Get in touch: [email protected]

Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/poetsandthinkerspodcast/
Subscribe to Poets & Thinkers on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/poets-thinkers/id1799627484
Subscribe to Poets & Thinkers on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4N4jnNEJraemvlHIyUZdww?si=2195345fa6d249fd

Chapters

1. Introduction to John Danner (00:00:00)

2. Growth, Innovation & the Fear of Failure (00:05:08)

3. The Power of the Status Quo (00:13:10)

4. The Future of Organizations in an AI World (00:21:42)

5. Creating Invitational Leadership Models (00:27:22)

6. Advice for Future Leaders (00:35:29)