by Peter A. Arthur-Smith, Leadership Solutions, Inc.®

“Encouraging employers to ask questions can help spur the innovation companies crave.”Article by Warren Berger: ‘The Power of “Why?” and “What if?”’ – New York Times, July, 2016.

What are some of the key issues confounding your organization today? Do you already have Breakthrough Teams (BTs) at work within your organization? If not you are either standing-still or your organization will be facing decline. At any one time there are always going to be significant challenges or bottlenecks holding teams or enterprises back. Traditionally we’ve turned to the ‘boss,’ or expert, or ad-hoc team, or project team to find solutions. With enlightened leaders they turn to breakthrough teams, because without that moniker a group of cobbled together individuals will not take their task seriously enough.

Looking at our adjacent pictograph, we can envisage a Breakthrough Team being tasked with focusing on a particularly challenging issue. What’s one of your most thorny issues today? Do you lay awake at night thinking about this issue, not knowing which way to go, instead of thinking about which people in your organization you could put together to form a talented breakthrough team? Unless your organization is especially unlucky or impoverished from talented people, you’re bound to have the seven people with varying talents and expertise to form such a dedicated team. Too often we call on two or three people of similar personalities and expertise to do the job and then wonder why we have a hard time making breakthroughs. This is because, unless it’s around seven people of the right caliber and talent mix, you’re unlikely to have the spread of capability to make a real breakthrough.

The seven roles we have in mind, which resemble the seven roles of one of our Enterprise Growth Teams (EGTs), are as follows:

»Pathfinders – People who can see the bigger picture, are integrators of ideas, have the respect of other team members, and can sustain their focus over fairly substantial periods of time.

»Optimizers – These are people who are good at perceiving opportunities and alternative paths, and then figuring out different options for optimizing any outcome.

» Innovators- Such people are smart experimenters who will pull existing products-services apart or look into internal activities that need a fresh approach.

» Acquirers – These are great at figuring out how to fund situations or find the resources to pursue fresh or existing ideas or concepts.

» Developers – Individuals like these are especially valuable when it comes to the intelligent pragmatics of cobbling together a variety of ideas or concepts into real live solutions.

» Introducers – These are people who are good at finding optimal ways of encouraging others to ‘buy into’ new ideas or solutions.

» Human-Factors – Such individuals take a particular interest in the human dimensions, staffing and implications of any breakthroughs.

With such a constellation of expertise and personalities, we can now envisage some rich discussions and potential for significant breakthroughs to facilitate your enterprise’s growth. It’s now clear that you shouldn’t be lying awake at night thinking you’re the only one in your organization that is capable of resolving knotty issues. At the same time, you can now realize the potential shortcomings of ad-hoc or project teams. Above all, they’re usually not charged with the moniker of ‘breakthrough’ and therefore often do not view that as central to their existence or charge.

Are you ready take another look at one of your thorny issues with the help of a breakthrough team? If so, then you will be expecting them to pursue the following pathway:

Phase 1 – Put together the most likely group of people – see prior suggestions – and pose them a ‘big’ question related to what’s required. Give them an optimal, negotiable timeframe.

Phase 2 – Encourage one or more of them to read appropriate books or other sources as quickly as possible. Then they should brief their team colleagues on what they’ve discovered.

Phase 3 – Suggest they undertake an Option Solving exercise – see www.optionsolving.com .

Phase 4 – Create a clear vision-journey regarding what will constitute a clear breakthrough within a realistic time frame then agree that with you.

Phase 5 – Put together an appropriate Breakthrough Initiative, where team members can act in pairs with the Pathfinder as facilitator-integrator.

Phase 6 – Get together on a regular basis to discuss progress and revelations.

Phase 7 – Delivery of breakthrough proposal to you for action.

It now becomes abundantly clear that we have to rethink our approach toward resolving key organization and growth issues. We have to move away from our traditional step-by-step methods. We also need to realize that if we’re not constantly seeking fresh breakthroughs our organization or teams will eventually stagnate. Challenge your latest potential roadblock with a fresh ‘breakthrough team’ before it becomes so enormous and overwhelming that you find a half-baked, panic solution. Besides you have so much unnoticed talent within your growth organization, that it’s probably just chomping-at-the-bit to have a go at some of your pressing issues. It’s frustrating for them to sit on the sidelines and watch and wait for their day. To learn more about Breakthrough teams, read our forthcoming book – likely Spring 2020 – entitled: ‘Radical Leadership Breakthrough…’