Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries

by Safi Bahcall

In physics, you identify clues that reveal fundamental truths. You build models and see if they can explain the world around you. And that’s what we will do in this book. We will see why structure may matter more than culture.

We can think of the two competing incentives, loosely, as stake and rank.

separate the phases (the groups working on loonshots and on franchises) and create dynamic equilibrium (ensure that projects and feedback travel easily between the two groups). Break apart while staying connected.

Structure Rules

Land had said, “Do not undertake a program unless the goal is manifestly important and its achievement is nearly impossible.”

M, who can work together in the loonshot phase.

Imagine appointing a chief incentives officer, well trained in the subtleties of aligning value, who is solely focused on achieving a state-of-the-art incentive system. How much might politics decrease and creativity improve if rewards for teams and individuals were closely and skillfully matched to genuine measures of achievement?

In your battle with competitors for talent and loonshots, incentives are a weapon. If your competitors are all using knives, maybe you want to get yourself a gun.

The problem with most of the literature on the right management span for companies is the same as the problem with the question “What’s the right temperature for tea?” The

Which takes us to another reason a wide management span helps nurture loonshots: it encourages constructive feedback from peers.

layers “would have promoted organizational distractions, tempting researchers to worry more about titles and status than problem solving.”

creative talent responds best to feedback from other creative talent. Peers, rather than authority.