Modern Teams for Modern Problems | WIRED Brand Lab

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If we are beholden

to only practices that have been applied in the past,

then where are we gonna find innovation?

Where are we gonna find different paths

that create more purpose-driven outcomes?

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Modern teams are needed,

because modern problems have more unpredictability,

more ambiguity and more complexity

than they ever have before.

The most successful teams have unique, talented people

that aren't trying to conform

to a single way of expressing themselves,

but they're rather allowing their uniqueness to flourish

and appreciating the talents of the people on the team.

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You build teams by starting with humility and inclusivity

as your North Stars.

Humility to know that you,

both as an individual and as an organization,

likely don't have all the answers.

And inclusivity

as we're gonna knit together intentionally.

Diversity of perspectives.

I want people who approach situations very differently.

Let's take a challenge in healthcare

to serve the patient better.

Well, I probably need nurses and doctors

and maybe a pharmacologist

to think through the end-to-end process.

And then, 'cause we're talking about patient experience,

maybe I go find a designer

who's designed creatively

a world class customer experience in retail

and has never thought about

that in the context of a healthcare setting.

That's beautiful,

'cause we knit together these different skill sets

in this fluid jigsaw puzzle.

It's the texture of the mosaic of the modern team

that actually creates better outcomes.

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Instead of looking at the problem

from an analytic lens first,

let's talk first about who the people are

that are gonna be affected by improving this situation.

The consulting business of the past was largely input-based.

Instead, this is about complex problems

that have big vision of solution.

If we achieve that outcome together,

then the benefits to me are gonna be higher.

Those that fail to embrace it will become dinosaurs.

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If there's one reality

about the challenges facing all industries,

it's that the cycle time

from the identification of a challenge needs to get shorter.

Future focused team members

find ways to compress the innovation cycle,

introduce more agile problem-solving techniques,

more agile methods.

If I were to look back to the year 2000,

and we were faced with a similar problem,

we would've built a roadmap that said,

here's how we can get from here to your desired state

in 24 to 36 months.

I can now look at some of those same challenges and say,

let's talk about 36 days from now

and what could be different.

That unlocks so much potential to experiment,

to innovate,

to see success and to see failure more quickly

and for the cycle of innovation and activity to hasten.

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If I have one piece of advice to clients that is

push your consultants much harder,

demand much more.

Clients should expect that

their consultants have diverse teams at the table.

Clients should also expect

that their consultants are willing to change course

and be agile as circumstances dictate.

Look, this is an outcome-based world

that you have the potential to create.

Because when we do that,

you get the ultimate team orientation

which is we are together

trying to achieve a common destination.

And when we do,

we celebrate together.

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