The goal of all teams is to resolve a problem. That goal is achieved when we learn to think out of the box. When we think about the eulogy at Robert Kennedy’s funeral. He said, “some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not.”
The successful cross-functional team needs to open itself to a diversity of ideas when searching for solutions. Thin out of the box and consider all the potential solutions not from the frame of mind what we have done in the past but what we could do in the future. Think about the first three questions from the Design Thinking model – what is, what if, what wors.
Begin by looking at the wider view of the existing problem. Consider all the aspects of how the problem is manifesting itself. Then consider all the potential alternatives. Let your critical thinking skills assist you in determining how might we resolve the issue. Note I did not ask how can we resolve the issue. I did not say how can we resolve the issue I said how might we resolve the issue. The former limits your considerations of the possible alternatives.
Once we have fully thought out the what if’s of the solutions we can begin to experiment and see which of these solutions will actually work to fulfill the need of our customers.