Why psychology matters more than strategy

A world-renowned strategist and author, one of the pioneers of platform thinking, John Hagel, joins us on this episode.
He starts the episode by sharing something profound: “I was taught to believe strategy is everything for winning. Over the years, I’ve come to realise it’s less about strategy and more about psychology.”
He also discusses how fear currently largely shapes decision-making, and why regaining the “passion of the explorer” is fundamental in this time of change, as new forms of value creation are needed. He talks about approaches such as the Zoom In/Zoom Out and scaling the edge, which can help organisations navigate uncertainty.
If you feel the urge to go beyond fear and create sustainable and empowering creation spaces, tune in.

John is the author of several influential books, including the seminal “The Power of Pull” and “The Journey Beyond Fear”.
He has always reflected on how organisations can navigate an era defined by accelerating technological change.
Throughout the conversation, we explore why the future of work depends less on tightly specified tasks and more on cultivating environments where curiosity, experimentation, and the “human” element of work thrive.

Key Highlights
👉 Strategy alone is not enough to drive transformation; leaders must understand the psychological forces, especially fear of the future, that shape how people respond to change.
👉 In an era where machines increasingly handle routine tasks, human work should focus on creativity, curiosity, and responding to unexpected challenges.
👉 Cultivating the “passion of the explorer”, a desire to keep learning and make a greater impact in one’s field, is key to improving performance over time.
👉 The Zoom Out / Zoom In approach to strategy helps organisations align long-term ambition with focused short-term initiatives that create tangible progress.
👉 Instead of attempting large-scale transformation all at once, organisations can “scale the edge” by experimenting in small initiatives that can gradually grow into the new core of the business.
👉 The emerging “trusted advisor” model highlights the value of deeply understanding customer contexts and orchestrating networks of resources to help them succeed.
👉 While technologies like generative AI can significantly improve coordination and resource discovery, human curiosity, judgment, and the ability to challenge assumptions remain central to creating meaningful value.
👉 In a rapidly changing world, the most powerful form of learning is not simply sharing existing knowledge, but creating entirely new knowledge together.

Topics /chapters
(00:00) Beyond Fear: Regaining the Passion of The Explorer in our Organizations - INTRO
(01:18) Introducing John Hagel
(03:57) What Machines Can't Replace: Creativity, Curiosity, and Human Connection
(08:39) Working with emotions for value creation
(14:56) How can people create new value propositions?
(22:23) How do you prevent fear from snowballing?
(24:54) How do you create a passionate organization?
(30:55) Patterns in discovering new forms of value
(35:18) Generative AI as a coordination Technology
(39:05) Breadcrumbs and Suggestions

Remember that you can always find transcripts and key highlights of the episode on our website: https://www.boundaryless.io/podcast/hagel-john

Episode recorded on Feb 20, 26

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Music

Music from Liosound / Walter Mobilio. Find his portfolio here: https://blss.io/Podcast-Music