{"id":1525,"date":"2025-08-28T12:56:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T12:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aidanmccullen.com\/?p=1525"},"modified":"2025-08-28T12:56:00","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T12:56:00","slug":"imbalance-at-lego-muscles-microbes-and-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aidanmccullen.com\/?p=1525","title":{"rendered":"Imbalance at Lego: Muscles, Microbes, and Management"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cLife is a balance of holding on and letting go.\u201d-\u00a0Rumi<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been suffering with shoulder and neck pain for years. Occasionally, it gets so bad I go to a physiotherapist. They treat the symptoms, I take some anti-inflammatories, it eases for a while\u2026but the dull pain always comes\u00a0back.<\/p>\n

Recently, I decided to take matters into my own hands\u200a\u2014\u200aliterally.<\/p>\n

I researched the shoulder more deeply and realised that while there are many supporting muscles, most people only train the big movers with one or two exercises. The smaller stabilisers get\u00a0ignored.<\/p>\n

Three weeks into a new programme, my pain has eased dramatically. The problem wasn\u2019t that my shoulders were weak. The problem was muscular imbalance. Larger muscles were overcompensating and doing all the\u00a0work.<\/p>\n

It struck me how often imbalance is the root cause of dysfunction. You can\u2019t overdevelop one side while ignoring the other\u200a\u2014\u200awhether in a body, a microbiome, or a business. Take for example what Steven Gundry shared on a recent episode of The Innovation Show, where we see this same truth play out in our microbiome.<\/p>\n

Microbes Out of\u00a0Balance<\/h3>\n

A healthy gut thrives on diversity\u200a\u2014\u200ahundreds of species in balance. But microbes are opportunistic. When conditions shift (through diet, antibiotics, or toxins), one strain can seize the advantage.<\/p>\n

A dominant strain can \u201cexploit\u201d every resource, crowding out opportinity for\u00a0others.<\/p>\n

In this state, a normally harmless bacteria can become a saboteur: sending false signals to the brain, hijacking appetite, and even tricking us into craving the sugary foods it thrives\u00a0on.<\/p>\n

Gut resilience comes not from dominance, but from equilibrium no single species dominating the\u00a0rest.<\/p>\n

And that brings me to the main thesis of this week\u2019s Thursday Thought. Many organisations are not lacking innovators or change makers, so much that they are dominated by the executors, the doers rather than thinkers. As a result, there is an imbalance and organisations become inhospitable environments for innovation.<\/p>\n

Organisations Out of\u00a0Balance<\/h3>\n

\u201cOrganisations, by their very nature are designed to promote order and routine. They are inhospitable environments for innovation.\u201d\u200a\u2014\u200aTheodore\u00a0Levitt<\/em><\/p>\n

Established organisations are built for repeatability, reliability, and risk avoidance. That structure was valuable when environments were stable. Today, it can be\u00a0fatal.<\/p>\n

Management often defaults to study, plan, decide, execute. While effective in predictable markets, this model collapses under uncertainty. It produces analysis paralysis.<\/p>\n

Clayton Christensen warned:<\/p>\n

\u201cCompanies whose investment processes demand quantification of market sizes and financial returns before they can enter a market get paralysed\u2026 They demand market data when none\u00a0exists.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Or as General Stan McChrystal put\u00a0it:<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the efficiency in the world has no value if it remains static in a volatile\u00a0world.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Exploit and\u00a0Explore<\/h3>\n

James March, the scholar who introduced this duality as exploit and explore (work furthered by Michael Tushman, Charles O\u2019Reilly and Andrew Binns and Alexander Osterwalder and Both\/And thinking by Wendy K. Smith and Marianne\u00a0Lewis):<\/p>\n

Exploitation = refinement, efficiency, execution.
\nExploration = search, risk-taking, discovery, innovation.<\/p>\n

March\u2019s warning was\u00a0clear:<\/p>\n

\u201cAdaptive systems that engage in exploration to the exclusion of exploitation\u2026 suffer the costs of experimentation without many benefits. Conversely, systems that engage in exploitation to the exclusion of exploration\u2026 become trapped in suboptimal equilibria.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Balance between the two is essential for long-term survival.<\/p>\n

Few companies show this lesson more clearly than\u00a0LEGO.<\/p>\n

LEGO: A Case of Imbalance<\/h3>\n

Too Much Exploit: perfectionism, rigidity, and insularity in the\u00a01990s.<\/h3>\n

Founded in 1932, LEGO thrived for decades on meticulous quality control. Leaders debated for nearly a decade before adding a single new brick colour. When Lucasfilm first proposed a Star Wars partnership, one vice president snapped: \u201cOver my dead body will LEGO ever introduce Star\u00a0Wars.\u201d<\/p>\n

This perfectionist mindset worked for 60 years. By the early 1990s, LEGO commanded 80% of the global construction toy market and was crowned \u201cToy of the Century.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the same strengths soon calcified into rigidity and too much \u201cexploit\u201d. By the late 1990s, digital and electronic toys were reshaping the market while LEGO remained insular and slow. Sales plateaued and the very culture that had driven its rise\u200a\u2014\u200apainstaking caution, slow desicion-making, obsessive quality, and reluctance to partner\u200a\u2014\u200aleft LEGO stagnant and flat-footed.<\/p>\n

Too Much Explore: the \u201ccreativity above all else\u201d mantra in the early\u00a02000s.<\/h3>\n

An outsider CEO, J\u00f8rgen Vig Knudstorp, refocused on the core brick. He halved the number of unique parts, sold off non-core ventures like theme parks, and carefully layered back exploration through partnerships with Star Wars, Harry Potter, and\u00a0Marvel.<\/p>\n

With efficiency and creativity finally held in balance, LEGO recovered. Today it is worth over $10\u00a0billion.<\/p>\n

Friends of the Innovation Show, Michael Tushman<\/a> and Charles O\u2019Reilly<\/a> captured the exploit\/explore solution\u00a0nicely:<\/p>\n

\u201cTo flourish over the long run, most companies need to maintain a variety of innovation efforts. They must constantly pursue incremental innovations, small improvements in their existing products and operations that let them operate more efficiently and deliver ever greater value to customers. Companies also have to make architectural innovations, applying technological or process advances to fundamentally change some component or element of their business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like any successful organisation, effective leaders recognise that an excessive focus on exploitation of current advantages can lead to missed opportunities, while too much exploration without consolidation can lead to overextension and vulnerability.<\/p>\n

Like my shoulder, like our gut, like LEGO: imbalance is costly. Resilience\u200a\u2014\u200ain bodies, ecosystems, and organisations\u200a\u2014\u200acomes not from dominance, but from\u00a0balance.<\/p>\n

As Rumi reminds us, life\u200a\u2014\u200alike business\u200a\u2014\u200a\u201cis a balance of holding on and letting\u00a0go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking of the challenge highlighted by Tushman and O\u2019Reilly\u200a\u2014\u200amaking architectural innovations that apply technological or process advances to fundamentally change elements of a business\u200a\u2014\u200awe explore the fascinating case of Figma and Adobe in the latest episode of The Innovation Show with Sangeet Paul\u00a0Choudary<\/p>\n

https:\/\/medium.com\/media\/7f2398fe163bf39a9fce2c567c81e087\/href<\/a><\/p>\n

Imbalance at Lego: Muscles, Microbes, and Management<\/a> was originally published in The Thursday Thought<\/a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.<\/p>\n

The post Imbalance at Lego: Muscles, Microbes, and Management<\/a> appeared first on The Innovation Show<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cLife is a balance of holding on and letting go.\u201d-\u00a0Rumi I\u2019ve been suffering with shoulder and neck pain for years. Occasionally, it gets so bad I go to a physiotherapist. They treat the symptoms, I take some anti-inflammatories, it eases for a while\u2026but the dull pain always comes\u00a0back. Recently, I decided to take matters into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nImbalance at Lego: Muscles, Microbes, and Management - Aidan McCullen \u2013 Keynote Speaker Ireland | Innovation & Leadership Expert<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/aidanmccullen.com\/?p=1525\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Imbalance at Lego: Muscles, Microbes, and Management - Aidan McCullen \u2013 Keynote Speaker Ireland | Innovation & Leadership Expert\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cLife is a balance of holding on and letting go.\u201d-\u00a0Rumi I\u2019ve been suffering with shoulder and neck pain for years. 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Occasionally, it gets so bad I go to a physiotherapist. They treat the symptoms, I take some anti-inflammatories, it eases for a while\u2026but the dull pain always comes\u00a0back. Recently, I decided to take matters into…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aidanmccullen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aidanmccullen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aidanmccullen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aidanmccullen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aidanmccullen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aidanmccullen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aidanmccullen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aidanmccullen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aidanmccullen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}