Why do good teams kill great ideas? Safi Bahcall reveals a surprising new way of thinking about group behavior that challenges everything we thought we knew about nurturing radical breakthroughs. Drawing on the science of phase transitions, and using stories that range from the hunt for U-boats in WWII to the search for new cancer drugs, Safi shows why teams, companies, or any group with a mission will suddenly change from embracing wild new ideas to rigidly rejecting them. Hear fresh insights from this new kind of science and learn three techniques that creatives, leaders, and visionaries can use to liberate the ideas trapped inside small and large companies everywhere.

How did the music industry escape death? How did one mall succeed while all others failed? Why did Amazon beat Google in the race for cloud services—what did Amazon do right and Google get wrong? Learn three strategic principles you can use to turn crisis into opportunity. Hear about the science of spotting, the need to balance the two types of loonshots, and the hidden gaps that must be closed in launching new ventures during uncertain times. Learn how the best innovators have applied these principles to emerge leaner and stronger on the other side of a crisis.

How did the music industry escape death? How did one mall succeed while all others failed? Why did Amazon beat Google in the race for cloud services—the most rapidly growing business of the 21st century? Learn the four principles that connect these examples: the rules of reinvention. Hear about the need to balance the two types of loonshots, the hidden gaps that must be closed, the common traps that needlessly sink new ventures, and how the best innovators overcome these challenges and balance the core and the new. Learn how Microsoft has been applying these same principles to rapidly catch up in the trillion-dollar race to dominate the cloud—transforming itself, along the way, from an also-ran into the most valuable company in the world.