The Breakthrough Manifesto Ten Principles to Spark Transformative Innovation

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 are often far from novel, relying on stale methodologies applied against well-defined problem sets. Or worse, left to hope or happenstance.

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.

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.

Welcome to Breakthrough

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

CHAPTER 2:

Strip Away Everything

Check Yourself

Question Orthodoxies

Don’t Believe Everything You Hear

CHAPTER 3:

Live with the Problem

Look Before You Leap

Try Passive Percolation

Spend Your Time Wisely

CHAPTER 4:

Check Your Edge

Expand Your Thinking

Pursue the Unexpected

Stretch Yourself

CHAPTER 5:

Enlist a Motley Crew

Get Truly Motley

Enlist All Members

Row Like a Crew

CHAPTER 6:

Get Real

Find Your Equilibrium

Be Yourself But Keep Evolving

Get Real Together

CHAPTER 7:

Make a Mess

Produce a Prototype

Co-create

Build For Buy-in

CHAPTER 8:

Don’t Play ‘Nice’

Strike the Right Note

Make It Worth It

Anticipate Differences

CHAPTER 9:

Dial Up the Drama

Set the Stage

Immerse Yourself

Make Em Laugh

CHAPTER 10:

Make Change

Change

Iterate and Adapt

Make a Dent

Contents

 Putting the Principles into Practice:

Breakthrough Methods

 Silence Your Cynic Methods

1. Interrogate Yourself

2. Ask What If…?

3. Change Your Mind(set)

4. Get Physical

5. Buddy Up

 Strip Away Everything Methods

1. Flip Orthodoxies

2. Defy Constraints

3. Sleuth for Truth

4. Search for UFOs (Unidentified Fact Options)

5. Reuse and Repurpose

 Live with the Problem Methods

1. Act like a Toddler

2. Change the Lens

3. Try Question-storming

4. Stretch Out Your Brainstorming

5. Sleep On It

 Check Your Edge Methods

1. Plot Your Portfolio

2. Think Three Bears

3. Play Mad Libs

4. Mix It Up

4. Push Yourself

 Enlist a Motley Crew Methods

1. Reveal Your Superpower

2. Assess Your Team’s Diversity

3. Mind the Gap

4. Interrupt Cascades

5. Celebrate Slogans

 Get Real Methods

1. Start a Vulnerability Loop

2. Flag Highs and Lows

3. Explore Trust

4. Ask Deeper Questions

5. Listen

 Make a Mess Methods

1. Go Marshmallow!

2. Make a Metaphor

3. Immerse Yourself

4. Stream Your Consciousness

5. Doodle Do

Don’t Play ‘Nice’ Methods

1. Save a Seat for the Elephant

2. Go To Extremes

3. Find Your Achille’s Heel

4. Like, Wish, and Wonder

5. Frame Feedback

Dial Up the Drama Methods

1. Kick It Around

2. Color Me Breakthrough

3. Light It Up

4. Make a Playlist

5. Be a Character

Make Change Methods

1. Navel-gaze

2. Establish Rituals

3. Motivate With Nudges

4. Plan for Scenarios

5. Find Your Why

References

Acknowledgements

A Note from the Authors

About the Authors

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