There’s A Time To Explore And A Time To Exploit
“Exploration is the engine that drives innovation. Innovation drives economic growth. So let’s all go exploring.”
How do bees know where to find the best pollen?
It’s a question you’ve probably never thought about. That’s a shame because the answer is quite interesting.
To signal to other group members where to go, our flying friends use a form of communication known as the ‘waggle dance’.
What’s unusual is that at any time, roughly 20% of the bees will ignore it.
Instead, they will fly off in random directions.
On the surface, this appears to be suboptimal behaviour. Why would these bees give up on a confirmed source of pollen?
The answer is that they are performing an important task: exploring.
If all the bees went off in the same direction, they’d never find new opportunities.
And if they never found new opportunities…well…no more bees.
The same is true in the world of business.
Companies must spend some of their time ‘exploring’ new ideas. That way, they can continue to innovate and remain relevant.
But there’s a challenge.
They must do this whilst ‘exploiting’ their current knowledge at the same time.
It was the management theorist James G. March who put forward the idea that organisations either spend their time ‘exploring’ (i.e. looking for new knowledge) or ‘exploiting’ (maximising the utility of existing knowledge).
The problem is that whilst both can result in massive opportunities for a company, it’s difficult to engage in both simultaneously.
Why?
For the simple reason that they require opposing mindsets.
Exploration requires the type of big picture, unstructured thinking best undertaken by maverick personalities.
On the other hand, exploitation is about the organised and optimised repetition of an existing, winning formula.
This is why there are endless stories about companies creating separate innovation (I.e. exploration) divisions within their organisation staffed with rule breakers.
Lockheed Martin had their ‘skunkworks’ where they developed state-of-the-art aircraft, including the SR-71 ‘Blackbird’ and the F-117 ‘Nighthawk’, among others.
IBM, famous for its mainframe computers, sited its new PC division in Florida, miles away from its New York headquarters. As Rory Sutherland writes in his excellent book Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don’t Make Sense:
“It did this to prevent managerialists from stifling new ideas at birth, and to provide experimental space for T.J. Watson called ‘wild ducks’”.
And Microsoft allocated a separate space in its Redmond, Washington headquarters for the team it assembled to build the first Xbox gaming console.
There aren’t many companies that get the balance right, and even fewer sustain it over time. Hence, today’s innovation superstars become the future’s long forgotten.
You may draw similar parallels with your own life.
The constant challenge of getting the right balance between theory and practice.
Exploration in the form of reading and learning new things is important for personal growth, but at some point, you must capitalise on your new knowledge by putting it to the test.
So how much research do you need to do before you take action?
The answer is it depends.
Choosing who to marry probably warrants more than a snap decision. You also probably shouldn’t jump out of a plane without spending some time in parachute training first.
Nevertheless, in most cases, you are better off doing some quick, initial research and then taking action.
The temptation is to spend too much time in the former state.
Reading endless books on a topic feels productive, but if you don't take action, it’s another form of procrastination. It’s easy to kid yourself you’re making progress, but you’re just spinning wheels.
Remember, information alone isn’t sufficient. And more information isn’t always helpful. At some point, you have to make the switch from exploring to exploiting.
To paraphrase a famous saying, ‘Knowledge is power but only if it’s applied’.
If you enjoyed this post, you might find value in reading our other posts on mental models, including 10 Mental Models Worth Knowing and 10 More Mental Models Worth Knowing.
