CAJ 017 - Mike Ackerbauer - Understanding the Keys to Breakthrough Teams

Understanding the 3 Keys to Breakthrough Teams

Michael AckerbauerWhole Team Evangelist

14 November 2017

@macker | ack-labs.com

Whole Team Evangelist

About Macker

IBMer Pastor

Transformation junkie

?ack-labs.com@macker

Essential question:How do small, self-directed teams collaborate

and communicate to breakthroughwhen solving work problems?

#thinkingskills

1Always strive for shared understanding

ack-labs.com@macker #thinkingskills

Reaching Shared Understanding






Solving the problem of working on teams

•What are we doing here? (Shared goals)

•How will we work together? (Team commitment)


Great teams are about personalities, not just skills

Personality affects:

• What role you have within the team • How you interact with the rest of the team • Whether your values (core beliefs) align with the team’s

Harvard Business Review, 2017

#thinkingskills@macker ack-labs.com


©Jeff Patton#thinkingskills@macker ack-labs.com

Tricks for getting to shared understanding• Make the abstract concrete • Show me, don’t tell me • Be visual (Mural) • Draw diagrams • Sketch • Write words, use Post-it notes • Ask the “stupid” questions – don’t assume


Clarify, Ideate, Develop and Implement2Understand the process for group innovative thinking


Elements of Breakthrough Thinking

Clarify Ideate Develop Implement


Clarify the situation


Clarify the situation


Generate ideasTo infinity and beyond!!!


Ideate - generate ideas


Develop Solutions


Develop solutions


Implement plans


Implement plans


Understand your team’s Thinking Mode Preference3



Person meets Process

Know your mind


Iteration over time

Asses

sAssess

AssessAss

ess

Clarify

Ideate

Develop

Implement


diverge

converge

divergeconverge

The heartbeat of creativity


ImplementIdeate DevelopClarify

Diverge-converge at every stage


The mainstream

New thinking

New thinking

Where new thinking comes from


Ambiguity Novelty Complexity Risk

MINDSET Sensegaps

Be open to novelty

Tolerate complexity

Takerisks

TOOL SET5W’s+H

How to…?Fishbone

Why? What’s stopping you?

Forced ConnectionsBrainwritingSCAMPERExcursions

POINTCard Sort

Evaluation MatrixOpportunity Mining

Targeting

Assisters/ResistersPlan for Action

DashboardDebriefing ?s

SKILL SET Clarify the challenge

Generate new ideas

Develop solutions

Implementplans


Exercise – Thinking Mode Preferences• Each person take 4 sticky notes

• On the top of each put: • Clarify, Ideate, Develop, Implement

• For each Thinking Mode sticky, each person place the letter H, M, or L choice indicating your preference for that thinking mode

• Examples: • If you tend to hate generating ideas, write “L” on the Ideate sticky. • If you love asking lots of questions to understand a situation, write “H” on the

Clarify sticky. • If you neither love or hate implementing, write “M” on Implement.

@macker | @tombouletJuly 2017

Exercise – cont’d• In each group, create a graph of your team’s preferences

• Make 4 columns, one for Clarify stickies, one for Ideate stickies, etc.

• Order the stickies by number with H’s on top and L’s on the bottom (skip the M’s)


H

H

L

HH

LL

H

H

L LLLL

L

L

Your results should look something like this:


Reading your team’s preference• Notice which Thinking

Modes have more high preferences

• Notice which have high energy, low energy

• Which team members may have conflict?

• What is the behavior you’re likely to see on this team?

H

H

L

HH

LL

H

H

L LLLL

LL



• Notice which Thinking Modes have more high preferences




Accelerator






Driver






Analyst






Early Bird






Hare

How do you build a breakthrough team?• Preference != ability!

• Don’t build teams based on preferences

1. build a team on skills and knowledge 2. use the preferences to guide and adjust

• See gaps as learning opportunities


Keys Recap3#thinkingskills@macker ack-labs.com

Always strive for shared understanding1Understand the process for group innovative thinking2Understand your team’s thinking mode preference3


3 - things you learned 2 - things you don’t want to forget 1 - thing you want to act on right away

Final exercise - how might you apply this?


Thank you!

@macker | [email protected]

References• Foursight: https://foursightonline.com/

• FourSight measure*: http://ibm.biz/foursight-AckLabs

• User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product, Jeff Patton, O’Reilly Media

• Online whiteboarding tool: Mural http://mural.co

* there is a cost. contact me for details.


https://foursightonline.com/

http://ibm.biz/foursight-AckLabs

http://mural.co

References • NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/09/education/edlife/what-kind-of-thinker-are-you.html • Fast Company: http://www.fastcompany.com/3026327/leadership-now/can-creativity-really-be-taught • Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/cherylsnappconner/2014/05/08/4-ways-to-increase-creativity-as-an-

entrepreneur/#2715e4857a0b5993c64d3f3e • Creativity is serious business: https://blog.mural.ly/2015/10/creativity-is-serious-business-an-interview-with-

john-cabra/ • Creativity Becomes an Academic Discipline: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/09/education/edlife/creativity-

becomes-an-academic-discipline.html • What teams land on Top? http://us6.campaign-archive1.com/?

u=baee16128da27daeb178701a9&id=dc08b0bb33 • The Creative Problem Solving model: http://members.optusnet.com.au/charles57/Creative/Brain/cps.htm • The need for Design Thinking: https://svad.cah.ucf.edu/files/director/designthinkinginbusinessschools.pdf


http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/09/education/edlife/what-kind-of-thinker-are-you.html

http://www.fastcompany.com/3026327/leadership-now/can-creativity-really-be-taught

http://www.forbes.com/sites/cherylsnappconner/2014/05/08/4-ways-to-increase-creativity-as-an-entrepreneur/#2715e4857a0b5993c64d3f3e

https://blog.mural.ly/2015/10/creativity-is-serious-business-an-interview-with-john-cabra/

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/09/education/edlife/creativity-becomes-an-academic-discipline.html

http://us6.campaign-archive1.com/?u=baee16128da27daeb178701a9&id=dc08b0bb33

http://members.optusnet.com.au/charles57/Creative/Brain/cps.htm

https://svad.cah.ucf.edu/files/director/designthinkinginbusinessschools.pdf