Beyond Business as Usual: Building Ambidexterity in People Strategy

There are places in your career that shape the way you see things. During my time at Intel, years ago, the leadership team I was part of set out to reinvest in a new strategic direction, reimagining the business in the face of a potential “ramp down.”

This task was far beyond business as usual. The high aspiration to completely transform the business and create new possibilities while demonstrating immediate operational excellence was both challenging and inspiring.

We called it ambidexterity—a concept that means being equally skilled with both hands, or in business terms, the ability to build the future while delivering in the present.

Today, the challenges facing business feel closer than ever to that time of bold reinvention. But how do we achieve this without slipping back into operational norms?

Seth Godin, in his insightful article "How to Avoid Strategy Myopia" (HBR, 22.10.24), states, “…if you’re going in the wrong direction, it doesn’t matter how fast you’re going.” He encourages leaders to avoid getting stuck in strategy myopia—prioritizing the urgent, the proven, and the easily measured—particularly during moments of intense change.

For us in People and Talent, ambidexterity requires a fundamental shift. Our focus can easily skew toward the immediate: tactical pressures, certainties, and measurable results, often at the expense of foresight and exploration. The challenge in achieving ambidexterity isn’t usually a lack of innovation or time but the struggle to engage in work that is uncertain and abstract.

To address this, we need to structure our efforts differently, “holding” two distinct yet connected agendas: 👇 NOW and 👉 WHAT IF/WHAT ELSE, and building models that enable us to drive both.

In one of the most inspiring keynotes I attended recently, Amy Webb shared a clear roadmap for approaching these dual agendas (see notes from Unleash World on this site).

Balancing two perspectives in People and Talent is challenging, but striving for ambidexterity—viewing our work from both present and future angles—will undoubtedly lead to better solutions and outcomes.

Limor