Image source: Creativity103, Creative Commons
In a blog post a few weeks ago, I mentioned I’ve been reading Warren Berger’s book A More Beautiful Question. Warren’s subtitle is “The power of inquiry to spark breakthrough ideas.” I cannot agree with him more. In fact, beyond innovative ideas, I believe this is a good approach to leadership in general.
In an HBR article written by Warren, he talks about how Tim Brown of IDEO uses the phrase “How might we.” Tim goes on to further the phrase like this:
- How: assumes there are solutions
- Might: Allows to think about what might and what might not work
- We: Do it together. Build on each others ideas.
“We” is hard.
I really like this train of thought and the power of those words. But based on my experience through the years, of the three words, (How, Might, We) “We” may be the most difficult to pull off.
In fact, if I think of the teams that I’m currently working with, one in particular strikes me as having the ability to really put this phrase to work effectively. But, this team has been together for several years and has dedicated a great deal of their time into becoming an effective team. I believe they leverage the “We” part of this phrase into something powerful.
Trust is the Key
However, other teams that haven’t spent the time and energy to build a trusting foundation would have no opportunity to take advantage of the “We” in this statement. In fact those teams will have difficulty with the “Might” word. To take full advantage of the “Might,” you have to be open and willing to give credibility to the “might not” opportunities. Teams that have not build the required foundation of trust have no ability to legitimately explore both the “might” and the “might not.” They will tend to put down or write off the foolish, ridiculous, ill thought out “might nots” offered by other team members when the trust and respect has not been previously established.
Isn’t that interesting? This simple phrase “how might we” could lead to some of the most innovative breakthroughs in the industry. But if we haven’t taken the time, effort, or willingness to build a powerful team first, we can barely get past “how.”
Have you built a trusting team that can effortlessly get through “might” and powerfully move into “we?” If not, don’t try this at home. It won’t produce much in way of results.
Build strong teams; they’re the key to innovation.