Building a Better Path to Breakthrough, By Design
Innovation is a process by which new ideas, services, and sources of value are brought to life. Yet approaches to the pursuit of innovation often rely on stale methodologies. Transformative innovation requires something else. Not just methodologies, but mindsets. Not just focusing on known challenges, but on unknown opportunities. Not just hoping for breakthrough by default, but realizing breakthrough by design.
In The Breakthrough Manifesto, a renowned business innovation leader teams up with a social-personality psychologist to offer that something else - a collection of 10 visionary principles to obliterate barriers to change and ignite a whole new level of creative problem-solving. Drawing upon decades of experience working with the world’s best-known organizations and their teams, the authors provide practical advice that goes beyond “business as usual” for successfully tackling intractable challenges. They’ll show you how to:
- Silence your inner cynic and strip away old, fallacious assumptions as you embrace problem-solving anew
- Embrace experimentation, prototyping, and co-creation revealing new potential by making a mess together
- Challenge yourself and each other to test your own limits and expand your comfort zone
Bursting with behavioral science, stories from the field, and pragmatic strategies, The Breakthrough Manifesto explores why these principles are critical for the current times and how they can spark breakthrough and unlock potential for you and your teams. Whether you’re an executive or manager, product or service designer, educator or student, this book is a must-read for anyone inspired to change the world or transform their own place in it.
Table of Contents
1 Welcome to Breakthrough
8 Chapter 1: Silence Your Cynic
Toxic Effect 1: Death to Innovation
Toxic Effect 2: Bye, Bye Diverse Ideas
Toxic Effect 3: Shackles on the Mind
20 Chapter 2: Strip Away Everything
Check Yourself
Question Orthodoxies
Don’t Believe Everything You Hear
32 Chapter 3: Live with the Problem
Look Before You Leap
Try Passive Percolation
Spend Your Time Wisely
44 Chapter 4: Check Your Edge
Expand Your Thinking
Pursue the Unexpected
Stretch Yourself
56 Chapter 5: Enlist a Motley Crew
Get Truly Motley
Enlist All Members
Row Like a Crew
70 Chapter 6: Get Real
Find Your Equilibrium
Be Yourself but Keep Evolving
Get Real Together
82 Chapter 7: Make a Mess
Produce a Prototype
Cocreate
Build for Buy- In
94 Chapter 8: Don’t Play “Nice”
Strike the Right Note
Make It Worth It
Anticipate Differences
108 Chapter 9: Dial Up the Drama
Set the Stage
Immerse Yourself
Make ’Em Laugh
122 Chapter 10: Make Change
Reframe “Change”
Iterate and Adapt
Make a Dent
137 Putting the Principles into Practice: Breakthrough Methods
139 Silence Your Cynic Methods
Interrogate Yourself
Ask What If . . .
Change Your Mind(set)
Get Physical
Buddy Up
151 Strip Away Everything Methods
Flip Orthodoxies
Defy Constraints
Sleuth for Truth
Search for UFOs (Unidentified Fact Options)
Reuse and Repurpose
163 Live with the Problem Methods
Act Like a Toddler
Change the Lens
Try Question Storming
Stretch Out Your Brainstorming
Sleep on It
175 Check Your Edge Methods
Plot Your Portfolio
Think Three Bears
Play Mad Libs
Mix It Up
Push Yourself
187 Enlist a Motley Crew Methods
Reveal Your Superpower
Assess Your Team’s Diversity
Mind the Gap
Interrupt Cascades
Celebrate Slogans
197 Get Real Methods
Start a Vulnerability Loop
Flag Highs and Lows
Explore Trust
Ask Deeper Questions
Listen
207 Make a Mess Methods
Go Marshmallow!
Make a Metaphor
Immerse Yourself
Stream Your Consciousness
Draw It Out
217 Don’t Play “Nice” Methods
Save a Seat for the Elephant
Go to Extremes
Find Your Achilles Heel
Like, Wish, and Wonder
Frame Feedback
227 Dial Up the Drama Methods
Kick It Around
Color Me Breakthrough
Light It Up
Make a Playlist
Be a Character
235 Make Change Methods
Navel Gaze
Establish Rituals
Motivate with Nudges
Plan for Scenarios
Find Your Why
245 References
257 Acknowledgments
259 A Note from the Authors
261 About the Authors
263 Index
