No Stake in the Outcome

"We cracked the problem wide open. We have people coming forward we've never heard from before!" This from the leader of a global sales organization growing at 20% month over month.

How'd she do it? She specifically invited collaborators who had no stake in the outcome of the session to contribute to the solution. As counter-intuitive as it seems -- after all, who wants to bother with spinning up outsiders who know nothing about a problem space? -- inviting folks with no skin in the game can free a team from the shackles of conventional thinking.

"They weren't worried about implementation, or feasibility. They didn't know 'what doesn't work,' and ended up going far beyond what we had thought of, let alone tried, before."

I've noticed the same phenomenon myself. Years ago, we ran a strategic offsite for a big financial services company. Every team present had a strategic initiative they were trying to unlock, but we all worked on one specific challenge to level set on tools and mindset. Every team generated incredible solutions... except the team whose problem it was. They were too close to it, and too burdened by the pressure of implementation, to allow themselves to think freely.

Back to our sales leader. What was the biggest barrier she faced inviting in outsiders?

"Folks hesitated. They asked some version of, 'Am I qualified to contribute to this problem?'

"So I qualified them!"

By inviting them in, she felt she was able to address the competence question head on. And the results spoke for themselves.

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