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

Understanding the 3 Keys to  
Breakthrough Teams
Michael Ackerbauer 
Whole 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 breakthrough 
when solving work problems?
#thinkingskills

1
Always 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

Reaching Shared Understanding
©Jeff Patton

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 Implement
2Understand the process for
group innovative thinking

Elements of Breakthrough Thinking
Clarify Ideate Develop Implement

Clarify the situation

Generate ideas
To infinity
and
beyond!!!

Ideate - generate ideas

Develop Solutions

Develop solutions

Implement plans

Understand your team’s
Thinking Mode Preference
3 #thinkingskills@macker ack-labs.com

Person meets Process
Know your mind

Iteration over time
A
ssess
A
ssess
A
ssess
A
ssess
Clarify
Ideate
Develop
Implement

diverge
converge
diverge
converge
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
Sense
gaps
Be open to
novelty
Tolerate
complexity
Take
risks
TOOL SET
5W’s+H
How to…?
Fishbone
Why? What’s stopping
you?
Forced Connections
Brainwriting
SCAMPER
Excursions
POINT
Card Sort
Evaluation Matrix
Opportunity Mining
Targeting
Assisters/Resisters
Plan for Action
Dashboard
Debriefing ?s
SKILL SET
Clarify the
challenge
Generate new
ideas
Develop
solutions
Implement
plans

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
H
H
L
L
H
H
L
LLL
L
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
H
H
L
L
H
H
L LLL
L
L
L

preferences
energy, low energy
may have conflict?
this team?
Accelerator

preferences
energy, low energy
may have conflict?
this team?
Driver

preferences
energy, low energy
may have conflict?
this team?
Analyst

preferences
energy, low energy
may have conflict?
this team?
Early Bird

preferences
energy, low energy
may have conflict?
this team?
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 Recap
3 #thinkingskills@macker ack-labs.com

Always strive for  
shared understanding1
Understand the process for
group innovative thinking2
Understand your team’s
thinking mode preference3 #thinkingskills@macker ack-labs.com

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 | ack-labs.com
mackeribm@gmail.com

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.

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

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

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