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BREAKTHROUGH
BUSINESS:
FINDING YOUR GOOSE THAT LAYS THE GOLDEN
EGGS
“Imagination
is more important than knowledge” EINSTEIN
What does the word “breakthrough”
mean?
Referring to the Thesaurus it means:
“Discovery, turning point,
quantum leap, cutting edge, radical growth”
Using the “unrelated analogy” method I married
the concepts of birds (the feathered kind) and business breakthroughs
to come up with a fresh perspective:
HOW IS THE EGG LAID?
- A well formulated question
is often the start of a breakthrough. Questions asked could
be:
Why are we doing it this way?
Does this need to be done at all, will our services/ products
still be required in a year’s time?
What does this mean for the business? (This is a good question
to put statistics/percentages in perspective.)
What can we combine with other services? (Even totally out
of your sector.)
How has the profile and expectation of my client changed?
-
A breakthrough can also start with
an observation,
often hand in hand with a
gut feeling. You notice something isn’t
right, or can be much more efficient. Employees must feel
free to communicate problems as they arise and find innovative
solutions before the mouse becomes a monster. Often if
you cross the stream early enough you wouldn’t need
to build a makeshift bridge over a raging river later
on.
-
A third way is to do regular “environmental
scanning” via client feedback, networking
and experiencing your competitors first hand. Is this
done in your company in a structured way (especially client/employee
feedback) and how can you increase the scope and quality
of your radar? Spend 80% of your time consulting with
your clients and employees and only 20% on reading how
Jack Welsh did it. Each successful business breakthrough
was in the context of a certain environment, and you need
to know your unique environment, clients and business
situation very well to be able to apply a business book
idea effectively.
HOW IS THE EGG HATCHED?
-
Understand that problem
analysis and creative thinking are like
partners
in a marriage. Without a proper understanding of the facts
we are brainstorming in an empty teacup. With only analysis
we can suffer paralysis, unable to progress to “out
of the box” thinking.
-
Ask well
formulated questions at meetings, not
just director to management but vice versa and also challenge
cross functionally. If you want to see progress you need
to ask the questions that in the past no one dared to
ask. This could imply the necessity of a well trained
facilitator the first time around to break through rank,
politics and personalities.
-
Although it sounds like a contradiction
in terms remember that innovation
can be a talent or a skill acquired. We
train people in left brain analysis and then expect them
to utilise creative thinking methods without being taught.
We can all draw a basic “pencil man”, but
look what we will be able to do after a day’s art
workshop. (Then there are always the naturally gifted!)
Develop your employees not just in analytical problem
solving, but also in creative thinking techniques.
HOW TO MAKE SURE YOUR BIRD DOESN’T BECOME A
DODO
So why do many breakthrough ideas only make
it to the drawing board? It boils down to company culture
and management/ team support. The company culture is the oxygen
that sustains breakthroughs in their initial stage. Culture
refers to, “the way of doing things” such as:
- Your own reaction to
new ideas as a manager/ team member is
essential to ensure the continued brainwaves from that
individual. Baseline refusal or comments such as “yes,
but…”, or “we have done it before and
it didn’t work” crush creativity. Rather
ask, “Why would it work; explain to me how you
would make it work?”
- Acknowledge innovation
as part of your company culture, hold it in high regard
with your appointments, embed it as a value in your performance
management system, with linked behaviours and reward it.
Some schools of thought say that employees are paid salary
wise for this and it is expected, but apply that thinking
and watch how they take their breakthrough ideas to another
company. Another important part of this culture is allowing
calculated risks and accepting possible failures and making
it a learning experience, not a humiliating experience
for the initiators.
Sometimes you may find the goose that lays
the golden eggs by accident, but more often than not the breakthroughs
are made where individuals understand what is going on in
their own business and environment. In that sense a breakthrough
leader is the alchemist mixing people, money, ideas and systems
in a unique recipe to get gold!
Please contact me if you are ready to
start thinking about a radical
shift in your business and can benefit from
breakthrough facilitated sessions or innovative
training in problem solving and creative thinking techniques!
Christa Loots
082 560 4418
christa@breakthrough.za.com
Book of the month:
Just do it! Richard Branson
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