In the world of enterprise technology, CIOs face unprecedented challenges as they seek to keep up with the rapid pace of innovation. Amid geopolitical conflict, economic instability, growing talent shortages, budget constraints, and evolving cybersecurity threats, IT leaders must guide their organizations through uncertain times, and they must do so by adapting to evolving business needs, digitizing operations, and integrating new technologies.
Make no mistake: tackling these challenges won’t be easy. Just don’t tell Mick Ebeling that it’s impossible, because he’ll likely prove you wrong. “Everything that’s possible today first wasn’t possible,” he says. “Who are we to say that, when we encounter difficulties, we’ve encountered something impossible?”
Ebeling, an American entrepreneur, is the founder and CEO of Not Impossible Labs, a think tank dedicated to changing the world through technology and storytelling, and he’s made a career out of overcoming obstacles that others had deemed insurmountable.
“It might not be this week, this month, this year, this decade, but it’s going to happen,” he says. “My belief is that, once you empower and equip people with that kind of thinking and have a clear objective on the other side, that’s when you start to see things transform.”
At SAP for Utilities, Presented by ASUG, where he’s a keynote speaker, Ebeling will discuss the “fallacy of the impossible” and how organizations can cultivate cultures of impact and purpose by reframing this concept as a starting point for innovation. He’ll do so by sharing stories of adversity and ingenuity that reflects Not Impossible Labs’ fundamental principle of “technology for the sake of humanity.”
Ebeling believes that organizations that prioritize employee experience, not only investing in their professional journeys but treating them with respect and equality as people, will be rewarded by employees passionate and motivated about showing up to work each day. “I don’t think we need business books that are outlining this complex strategy of how to create better performers,” Ebeling notes. “Just treat people well and watch what outcomes transpire because of it.”
Any organization can follow suit. “Alignment and mindset are the two main goals and priorities of any leader or manager worth their salt,” he explains. “It is about always empowering your team to believe that they're able to do more.”
Ebeling founded Not Impossible Labs after meeting Los Angeles graffiti artist Tony “TEMPT” Quan, whose battle with ALS had left him confined to a bed and only able to move his eyes, Ebeling organized a crew of hackers and artists to create the Eyewriter, the world’s first low-cost eye-tracking device, which enabled TEMPT to communicate and make art again.
After hearing the story of Daniel Omar, a 14-year-old boy in Sudan who was so badly injured after bombs were dropped on his village that he had both his arms amputated, Not Impossible Labs utilized 3D-printing technology to design low-cost prosthetic arms, later setting up a 3D-printing and training facility in Sudan.
In both instances, Ebeling started by assessing a seemingly insurmountable issue faced by one person and wound up with a technological solution capable of helping countless others. Economically, both solutions were game changers, costing an accessible $100, compared to other devices that cost $15,000.
Ebeling credits his success to a mantra of “commit, then figure it out” that emerged from his emotional response to hearing TEMPT’s story. “This artist hadn’t drawn anything or communicated through their family, besides through a letterboard, for over seven years,” he recalls. “We found that to be absurd. We had a gut reaction: this was wrong, and we had to change it. And guess what? That’s how everything that has ever represented any type of progress in society has ever happened. We are always committing to more than we actually are able to contemplate achieving, but for the fact that it must be done.”
Ebeling, who has been named one of the Top 50 World’s Greatest Leaders by Fortune, is the only person to be honored twice by TIME Magazine for a Top Invention of the Year—once for the Eyewriter and once for Bento, a text-messaging service that allows food-insecure individuals to discretely pick up no-cost meals from participating grocery stores or restaurants.
“With Bento, our aim and our mission is to end food insecurity—not to reduce food insecurity, but to end it,” he explains. “We start with this incredibly audacious end goal. We’re doing something that's clearly impossible, but that’s what we strive to do. When we hit milestones along the way, we know as a group that there’s a human on the other end of that whose life will be better because of it. That’s how you keep people aligned. That's how you keep people inspired.”
At Not Impossible Labs, Ebeling looks for individuals who believe in a greater purpose, but his work as a founder and CEO is to keep them aligned with the aim of each initiative the company takes on. “The way that we are able to not just pursue but to succeed in the things that we do is that everybody wakes up every day knowing the end mission of whatever initiative it is that we're working on,” Ebeling says.
For more insights from Mick Ebeling, don't miss his keynote address, "Beyond Impossible: Cultivating a Culture of Impact and Purpose" (Sept. 11, 11:15 AM-12:15 PM E.T., in Sparkle West) at this year's SAP for Utilities, Presented by ASUG conference.