Matching McDonald's accomplishment-and that of every other organization that creates value across the knowledge funnel-requires two very different activities: moving across the knowledge stages of the funnel from mystery to heuristic and heuristic to algorithm and operating within each knowledge stage of the funnel by honing and refining an

What organizations dedicated to running reliable algorithms often fail to realize is that while they reduce the risk of small variations in their businesses,

"Well, Roger, strategy is a design exercise, isn't it?"

Delving into mysteries is the most expensive activity along the knowledge funnel,

The final tool of the design thinker is configuration-translating the idea into an activity system that will produce the desired business outcome.

the design thinker needs to do to be more effective with colleagues at the extremes of the reliability and validity spectrum: (1) reframe extreme views as a creative challenge; (2) empathize with your colleagues on the extremes; (3) learn to speak the languages of both reliability and validity; (4) put unfamiliar concepts in

By limiting his focus, he has advanced to a working heuristic, while many of hiscolleagues worldwide are still probing the mystery and cycling through numerous potential angles of attack.

because you literally don't know what you aredoing. The high cost helps explain why so much research into mysteries is conducted in universities, government-funded labs, and other not-for-profit entities.

other companies. For