Progress and Breakthroughs: Why Not a Breakthrough?

It’s been said that evolution should not be thought of as a steady, linear progression of biology, but rather as a series of disruptions over time. Much the same can be said about technology, that progress is not measured by slowly changing incremental improvements; but instead by great and profound changes, whether you call them disruptive changes or chasms being crossed or whatever.

There’s no question that this is true. The PC of course was such a disruptive change; as was the internet, big data, smartphones and so on. It almost seems like one day there weren’t there; and the next, they were; and the world changed as a consequence.

Yet our natural instincts day to day are to do something very different. In so many efforts we do version 2.1, then 2.2, then 2.21, and so on, while somewhere, someone completely changes the game forever.

In my career I’ve been lucky enough to be part of some of these disruptive changes – I’ll call them “breakthroughs,”  because they really do remove barriers and break us through into new places. Let me tell you about them.

We often think of breakthroughs as reserved for the ultra-smart, and of them only those who take the big risks, spend the big bucks, and so on.

I don’t think so.

To me creating a breakthrough culture is all about a mindset. In fact, in my experience, a breakthrough culture is not any more expensive, time-consuming or costly than one of incremental progress. Check this graphic out:

 

If you look at the chart, you’ll see a breakthrough requires about the same amount of effort as stepwise progress. This has been my experience, having lived through both "modalities."

So why not choose a breakthrough?

Before you answer know that, of course, there is a difference. Breakthroughs lack what we humans crave, namely, predictability and thus the ability to be controlled. When you’re doing (say) Release 2.21a of some product, you usually have a very clear and precise idea at the beginning of what will be in it, how well it will work, how much it will cost, how many resources, blah, blah, blah.

Breakthroughs – well, you don’t have that level of certainty, and for those folks who need it, that’s a very scary proposition indeed.

So how do you build a mindset for breakthroughs?

I don't have all the answers but perhaps this will help. My old friend and coach Steve Rosenthal of Gap International once said something that changed my entire outlook on life. “Conversations,” he told me, “change the world.” Then he paused for effect. “What else does?”

It was like a lightning bolt struck. What else indeed?

Think about it: it’s true, isn’t it! Innovation is a remarkably social activity when you think about it.

So, if conversations change the world, and breakthroughs are as cheap as incremental improvements, why not have conversations for breakthroughs?

I’ll have more to say about this in a future post.

Comments

• Anonymous
  January 22, 2015
  Your graph of Result vs Effort seems conceptually inadequate for the phenomenon of breakthrough. Both plots depict a monotonically increasing function of an inherently discontinuous event -- the essence of breakthrough.  I suggest you think much harder and far more rigorously on this topic and avoid simplistic conclusions like "If you look at the chart, you’ll see a breakthrough requires about the same amount of effort as stepwise progress." This entire post has the bad smell of an orchestrated ad for some consultancy called GAP INTERNATIONAL. Time to come clean, "Mr. Briggs," stop being a shill and have a radical conversation for breakthrough called "tell the truth."

• Anonymous
  January 31, 2015
  I am actually on the complete other side, Carl.  I agree with Barry.  Breakthough is not more time or effort than evolutionary, it requires a different kind of thinking and it requires a much higher level of risk.   Risk is probably the key element that Barry ignores in his chart.  Evolution is much safer, whereas Breakthrough inherently is much riskier.   The important part of the post to me is how do you get to breakthrough.  To me, breakthrough requires two things.  1) Breakthrough requires think time, something that is a premium today.  You have to be able to stretch yourself to truly deliver breakthrough and you can't do that is 1 or 2 spare cycles.  2) Breakthrough  speeds up through conversation.  This is the most important thing is Barry's post.  Without conversation with people who come at things from different angles, it is very difficult to think differently.  We all tend towards evolution and conversation is what helps us challenge our thinking and introduce the opportunity for breakthrough.   Is Barry's graph simple?  Sure.  Is it academically pure and statistically backed up?  Of course not.  But that doesn't make it any less valuable as a way to make a point.  

• Anonymous
  November 25, 2015
  The comment has been removed