Chapter 14

What's the POINt?

“No idea is perfect,” Kate stated. “We are at that stage where we are going to need to test, measure, and tinker with the ideas and directions we've chosen. I also like the idea of subgroups to tackle each area. But I would like to make sure we are using a common process. We need to be clear about that before we continue with the divide-and-conquer plan.”

Elaine was getting antsy. Doing more work to develop the ideas was a draining thought to her. She was ready to get something to the client. In her mind, it had taken a long time to get to where they were and her patience had been tested every step of the way. She thought she had the answer at the beginning and, although it was one of the answers they chose, it wasn't the only one—so she saw the value of completing the process. Somehow that didn't make it any easier to recognize that they were in the developing stage and not yet to implementation. She was ready to get the work done.

Juan and Amy had a different mind-set altogether. They were excited to start seeing what would work and what wouldn't for their client. It was another opportunity to test, measure, and dig into data. It was a chance to refine and perfect. They both wanted to be involved in this part of the process as much as possible and the subgroup idea might not enable that.

Juan spoke up. “Wait a second, guys. I know we talked about subteams as a good method for moving forward, but what if we have a few areas we like to be a part of? What if I'd like to contribute to several groups?”

“Yes, I'm interested in going deep into a couple of these categories,” added Amy.

Maya understood their points but recognized that the time had come to move on. “I know how you both feel. And at the same time I think Elaine's point about saving time is also a good one. What if we all get the deep dive done in small teams and then come back together to review each other's work? Then we'd get input into other teams but not be slowed down too much.”

Juan had to agree this made sense. He appreciated the urgency of his teammates and knew it was his tendency to want to slow things down. “OK,” he said, “I'll still go with that as the plan but I think Kate's right that we will need some consistency in how each of our teams approach their challenge. If each team refines and develops differently, it will be hard to fit it all together in the end.”

No one disagreed or added to Juan's remarks, because most were just grateful to be moving forward.

The team looked toward Kate. She was ready. “We got to where we are by trusting the process, let's not lose that now. Developing is the phase we are in, so let me first remind you that this is about looking for ways to strengthen the ideas so that we bring the best ideas to the table in a coordinated and complete manner. It's the time to test our assumptions, measure what we can, and be sure that what we recommend really hits the goal. And what is our goal here?”

“To bring the client some new, workable, creative directions,” said Amy.

“That's basically how I understand it,” Juan said, supportively.

Kate continued, “In the course of developing, we may find ourselves needing more facts, more understanding of context. What tools do you tend to use to sort out what is good about the ideas and what might require some more thinking?”

“You mean a SWOT analysis?” Amy said immediately. “Listing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.”

“Sure, that's a pretty standard tool used in many businesses. But let me ask you this: how well does it use the convergent guidelines? In looking at weaknesses and threats, for example, how does it help you preserve the novelty of the ideas? How would SWOT be affirmative?”

“Well, it's not really meant to be a ‘breakthrough thinking’ tool. I've used it to pick apart an idea and see what I should be concerned about,” Amy added.

“And I bet it works great for that,” Kate said, “but that's not what we need here. We need a tool that is going to help us take the best part of the idea forward and come up with ways of developing the parts of the idea that might not work as well. What I like to do is called POINt.” She wrote the word on the whiteboard vertically with the P on the top.

“Its not polite to point,” Amy smiled.

“What does it stand for?” asked Juan, oblivious to Amy's playing around.

“Plusses, opportunities, issues, and new thinking. It uses some of the same techniques we have been using in other parts of the breakthrough thinking process, such as phrasing concerns as questions, and incorporates the guidelines of diverging and converging into its steps. Want to give it a try?”

Amy and Juan were most intrigued. Damon, Maya, and Elaine seemed less interested so Kate decided to ask one of them to be her guinea pig. Elaine was always chomping at the bit to get going so Kate asked her, “Elaine, which of the teams do you think you want to lead?”

“Supply chain,” Elaine said without hesitation.

“Any else interested in leading that one?”

If anyone had an interest in that area, they kept it to themselves. No one wanted to get between Elaine and her goal. If supply chain was their interest, they would just have to find another one.

“OK, so let's look at some of the ideas in that group. Which one do you immediately think has a lot of potential for getting something new and different for the client?”

“I don't know so much about new and different but I know by looking at the full spectrum that each supplier delivers we might be able to leverage volume to get better deals for Consolidated in the future.”

“OK, so is the idea to develop fewer but tighter relationships with vendors?”

“Yes, I think that sums it up pretty well.” Elaine felt like Kate was on her side.

“So, group, any questions about this idea?” No one volunteered any so Kate continued, “Then let me ask you, what are some of the plusses of that idea?”

“Stronger alliances with other companies.”

“Better costs for products.”

“Shorter delivery time.”

“Fewer contracts to worry about.”

The group continued to diverge for a few more minutes till Kate posed the next question.

“What about opportunities? These are the what-ifs about the idea—the potentials. What might happen if this idea is adopted?” Kate asked.

“We may find opportunities to cross-collaborate.”

“We may find more areas to be in business together.”

“It might expose Consolidated to takeover.”

“What?” said Amy. “I thought we were looking at opportunities?”

“We are, Amy,” said Kate, “but are all opportunities positive? This is the ‘imagine-if’ question that gets us to think like futurists. So we can imagine what might be potentially good or bad. Good question, Amy. Let me remind you all that this is a divergent phase of this tool. Remember those guidelines—defer judgment especially. Now, what other potentials do you see?”

“It might limit their reach into the market.”

“It might expose them to risk if a major supplier goes away and they have a lot of contracts to fill.”

“It might give them access to the latest new thing before competitors.”

“It might link them too closely with their suppliers’ financial health.”

“It might make them more financially stable to be linked with healthy suppliers.”

After a few more minutes of letting the group diverge, Kate said, “I can see there are issues about this idea—things that might need to be addressed before it could actually work. These are the concerns you might have about it. If we were to phrase those issues as questions using the open-ended statement starters we learned before, what would they be?”

“How might we find financially solvent suppliers?”

“How might we be sure we are not too closely linked with any one supplier?”

“How might we take advantage of their new products before our competitors do?”

“How can we be sure we are getting the best products available?”

“How can we be sure we are always getting the best price?”

After a few minutes, Kate had a concern about the concerns. She needed to find the source of the pain, so she asked, “Elaine, there are a lot of issues around the idea of developing a tight relationship with a few vendors. If we are going to make this idea strong and capitalize on those plusses, we have to tackle these issues. For which issue do you think it is imperative we get some new thinking?”

“How to be sure we are getting the best products available?” Elaine said.” If we can show Consolidated that tighter relationships give them better deals, that's great, but what about quality control? How will they know they are still getting the best product for their money?”

“Does anyone have any questions about that one?” asked Kate to a group ready to burst out of their chairs. “OK, let me have some ideas.”

“Create an automated search for the product prices.”

“Have a person dedicated to watching the competition's supplies—what are they ordering, from whom? for how much?”

“For those products that are ordered more than others, do biannual price checks.”

“Buy a small business that can supply 100 percent of the product to Consolidated.”

“Is there another, smaller country that can provide a better product?”

The group continued to diverge till the flip chart was filled. Then Kate checked in with Elaine.

“OK, Elaine. You have a lot of options here. Are there any that naturally go together?” Kate facilitated Elaine through the converging process till Elaine focused on the idea that Consolidated would need to set up a process to review contracts biannually. She also liked the idea of finding small suppliers that might be cost effective to purchase outright. “That would require a bit more research.” Elaine said as she glanced at Juan, knowing that he would be perfect to do that research.

Juan smiled knowingly and mouthed “not this time” toward her.

“What about the other ideas Elaine started out with?” asked Maya. “Are you saying she should do a POINt on each of those ideas?”

“Elaine, do each of them need a POINt?” asked Kate.

“Some of them do, for sure, but others seem pretty straightforward. The team can go right into analysis of the supplier's product catalogs, for instance. No reason to wait there. But now that we've done this one, I might also ask that they look at the supplier's financial stability as well.”

“So as far as process with our groups, then,” Damon observed, “it might be good to do the POINt for those ideas that seem big or perhaps not as focused before diving into the ones that seem complete or straightforward. Or is that just me wanting to focus on something divergent?”

More than one group member was a little surprised at Damon's self-awareness but maybe not as surprised as they might have been a few weeks ago.

Maya saw his point. “No, I think you're on to something there, Damon. Going deep into the big ideas seemed to help guide the more easy ones. I think I get this. Tackle the bigger, more ambiguous ones and some of the simpler ones get worked out in the process.”

The nods from the team made the table look like it was populated with bobble heads. “Cool,” said Damon, “so this is the process we'll start out with. Let's go deep! Who wants which topic?”

The group quickly self-organized, dividing the remaining idea groupings among themselves, and set forth as if with shovels in hand ready to mine for gold.