The Experiment That Succeeded
By Brian Maue
Innovation may be a buzzword du jour in entrepreneurship and business circles but knowing how to nurture and grow an innovative culture tends to be elusive. This is particularly true within a big bureaucracy and especially within government.
Few organizations learned that better than AFWERX, a government startup created to unleash the US Air Force’s culture of innovation. Starting as an idea in the Pentagon, AFWERX ended up being ranked #16 on Fast Company’s 2020 list of Best Workplaces for Innovators—ahead of companies such as Amazon and Intel—in less than three years’ time.
To guide AFWERX to its world-class cultural capabilities, co-founder and startup-years leader Dr. Brian “Beam” Maue developed an original strategic framework that drew upon ideas ranging from Sun Tzu to Silicon Valley. In The Experiment That Succeeded, Beam chronicles the principles and practices AFWERX used during its startup years to realize its remarkable achievements.
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Bouncing between gravitas and a bit of buffoonery, Beam takes readers on a journey through his Factors Linking Organizational Will (FLOW) framework. The exploration includesright and left-brain thinking, thought-provoking culture graphics and more than 50 questions to help internalize insights absorbed along the way.
Achieving innovation success may be challenging, but it is not random.
The Experiment That Succeeded reveals hidden principles of innovation success from a truly unique voice in the world of creative cultures. By applying its lessons, organizations—even those within the government—will accelerate up the learning curve and warp reality more readily in their favor.
Author Bio
Brian E. A. “Beam” Maue, PhD, co-founded and led AFWERX, a new US Air Force organization established to empower its people to create greater cultural and technological agility and capabilities. Beam’s diverse, earlier travels include developing hypersonic and nuclear missile options, advancing diplomacy through US treaty efforts, and teaching at the US Air Force Academy’s Management Department. Through his myriad service to his country, he has honed his signature “eudemonic” worldview and has sought to help people and organizations achieve their best. He enjoys sharing life with his wife Karin and their five inventive children.
