“A Navy SEAL walks into a bar full of quantum scientists…” It sounds like some kind of joke having a former Navy SEAL platoon commander give the leading keynote at one of the top quantum computing conferences in the US. But it was no joke and actually made a lot of sense (thank you D-Wave team for having me!). I know very little about quantum computing and the quantum mechanics behind it, but I did learn enough to connect my frameworks and stories with the audience.
Here’s why it made so much sense to have me deliver a keynote at Qubits25. Quantum computing is happening – it is an entirely new realm of what’s possible over “classical” computing (current computer processing). Here’s the thing, it doesn’t matter if the theme is quantum computing or cutting edge medical devices – new is new, and that’s means the greatest challenge is not the innovation, it’s the minds deciding how and when to use it. In other words, a mindset shift is required to embrace a disruptive technology or technique or service. Change the mind and we can then change the behavior (i.e. a new desired action).
I have seen this time and again, across a broad array of industries and organizations. To use a phrase from quantum computing: the “classical” way of doing something gets challenged by the “New Way”. How people treat this challenge is the difference maker between successful launch and adoption versus postponement, analysis paralysis and in-action. This is a NORMAL human response to look into what I call “our rearview mirror of what we know” and “what we’re familiar with”. Another way of describing the “classical way” of doing something is what I call the comfort zone.
That’s why it made so much sense to have me as the keynote speaker at a conference full of wildly smart computer scientists. Because a mindset shift is required to cross the adoption chasm from “it won’t work” to “what are the possibilities?” And that’s exactly where D-Wave, a leader in quantum computing, finds themselves. They are at an intersection between people thinking between it can or can’t work for them. Getting them to try something new – ANYTHING NEW – can be hard because the comfort zone of familiarity is so…well…comforting. Excuse narratives will emerge in our minds of worst case scenarios, embarrassing failures, or all kinds of other reasons not to try something new to us.
Part of my strategy for building a compelling keynote – that is one that drives people to take a specific action – is connecting the keynote with the theme of the conference. Now, I appreciate that might sound obvious, but trust me, it’s not and it take work.
D-Wave’s conference theme was called “Quantum Realized”. One of the big challenges D-Wave is facing is other tech leaders, such as the CEO of Nvidia, have different opinions of when quantum will be available.
The fact is, D-Wave’s Quantum Annealing technology isn’t just available, it’s been available for some time now. The team wanted me to help their audience – all early adopters types – that were both in person and tuning in virtually from around the world, to make a mindset shift and take the “leap” by trying their 3 month “Launchpad” demo service.
My third book is called UNSTOPPABLE MINDSET and they wanted me to discuss the principles of a how to change your mind about embracing a new technology such as their quantum computing capabilities. I used their theme along with an opening personal story around linear programming (yes, I learned how to do linear programming to optimize multi-variable problems back in business school – thank you Carnegie Mellon!). The key logic that I build my keynote on was for quantum to be realized we must first realize it in our minds. If no one believes (realizes) that quantum computing is already working (the point of the conference) then quantum can’t be realized. Believing something (aka realizing it) is a leadership journey that each of us decide.
Beliefs are one of the 3 controllables that I spoke about it in helping the audience understand how to lead themselves, and then in turn their teams, to embrace new ideas that can help them achieve their strategic goals (which I also call “over the horizon” goals).
It is up to us what we decide to believe. It is one of the 3 major leadership decisions we must make on our journey to achieving something new to us. The other key leadership decisions that I discussed are “how we think” and “where we focus”. When combined together, these core leadership decisions represent the foundation of our leadership actions. The outputs drive what actions we take, when and how.
After all, achieving something new to us requires fully committed action, and lots of it. And that can be difficult when we are expending copious amounts of time, energy and talent yet not seeing the dividends from our efforts. This is challenge comes with the journey of crossing new horizons, such as quantum computing.
Learning to believe leads to realizing the future state, and that is why “a Navy SEAL walked into bar full of quantum scientists.”