Breakthrough Lab

Bring a Challenge. Leave with a Way Forward.

Some challenges don't need more effort. They need a different way of thinking.

A project that isn't moving. A goal we keep missing. A change we're struggling to implement. A process that no longer works. An idea we believe in but can't seem to turn into reality.

Breakthrough Lab is a hands-on workshop designed to help managers and teams step outside their usual patterns, look at a real challenge differently and uncover new possibilities for moving forward.

Participants bring an actual challenge, project or opportunity from their work and use practical approaches suited to today's fast-changing, complex world to challenge assumptions, reframe the problem, explore new perspectives, identify leverage points and turn fresh thinking into action.

This is not a workshop about creativity for creativity's sake.

The goal is simple:

Take something that matters — and find a better way forward.

The challenges we'll work with

Breakthrough Lab can be applied to a wide range of real organizational challenges, such as:

• A project or initiative that is stuck or moving too slowly.

• A goal the team has been struggling to achieve.

• A new product, service or internal initiative that needs to take off.

• A change that isn't gaining enough adoption or momentum.

• A recurring organizational problem that previous solutions haven't solved.

• A process or way of working that needs to be reinvented.

• A collaboration or interface between teams that isn't working well.

• A new opportunity the organization wants to explore.

• A challenge that feels constrained by time, resources, budget or existing assumptions.

• An important idea that everyone agrees with — but somehow never becomes reality.

The challenges may be different, but the question is the same:

What could become possible if we stopped approaching this challenge in the same way?

The Breakthrough Process

Throughout the workshop, participants move through a structured process that takes them from challenge to action.

1. Frame it

Before solving a problem, we need to make sure we're solving the right one.

Participants define the challenge, separate facts from assumptions and clarify what success would actually look like.

2. Challenge it

We examine the beliefs, constraints and “rules” surrounding the challenge.

What are we assuming must be true?
What have we stopped questioning?
Which constraints are real — and which have simply become part of the way we think?

3. Reframe it

We look at the challenge through different lenses and experiment with alternative ways of defining it.

Sometimes the breakthrough begins not with a better answer — but with a better question.

4. Explore possibilities

We deliberately move beyond the first obvious solutions.

Participants generate alternatives, borrow ideas from other contexts, explore different scenarios and identify potential leverage points — small changes that could create a disproportionate impact.

5. Make it happen

Fresh thinking only matters if something changes afterward.

Participants select the most promising direction, identify what needs to happen next and translate the breakthrough into a practical first experiment or action plan.

Examples of tools we'll use

The exact toolkit is adapted to the group, challenge and workshop length and may include:

• Challenge Reframing Canvas – redefining the challenge and exploring whether we're solving the right problem.

• Assumption Busting – identifying the assumptions and “unwritten rules” that may be limiting possible solutions.

• 5 Whys / Root Cause Exploration – going beyond symptoms to understand what may really be driving the challenge.

• What If? Questions – deliberately changing constraints to open new possibilities.

• Reverse Thinking – looking at the challenge from the opposite direction to uncover ideas we might otherwise miss.

• Stakeholder Lens – examining the challenge from the perspective of customers, employees, managers or other stakeholders.

• Outside-In Inspiration – borrowing ideas and approaches from other industries, organizations or contexts.

• Leverage Point Mapping – identifying where a relatively small intervention could create significant change.

• AI as a Thinking Partner – using AI to challenge assumptions, generate alternative perspectives, explore scenarios and expand the range of possibilities.

• Impact vs. Effort Mapping – evaluating potential directions and deciding where to focus.

• Breakthrough Experiment – turning the selected direction into a small, concrete experiment that can be tested quickly.

How the workshop works

Breakthrough Lab is built around real work.

Participants arrive with a challenge they genuinely want to move forward. Depending on the workshop format, they may work individually, in pairs or in teams around shared organizational challenges.

We begin by defining the challenge and examining how it is currently being understood.

From there, participants move through a series of structured exercises designed to disrupt familiar thinking, uncover hidden assumptions and generate alternative ways forward.

Short content segments introduce each principle or tool, followed immediately by application to the participants' own challenges.

Peer perspectives are used throughout the workshop: sometimes the person who knows least about our challenge is the one who asks the question we stopped asking long ago.

AI can also be incorporated as an additional thinking partner — helping participants challenge assumptions, explore perspectives and test alternative scenarios.

Throughout the workshop, each participant or team builds a Breakthrough Map documenting the journey from the original challenge to new insights, opportunities and possible actions.

The workshop ends by moving from possibility to commitment:

What are we going to try next?

What you'll take away

Participants leave the workshop with:

• A clearer and often different understanding of the challenge they brought in.

• New perspectives and possibilities they had not previously considered.

• Practical tools for reframing problems and challenging assumptions.

• Techniques for getting unstuck when familiar approaches are no longer working.

• Experience using multiple perspectives — including peers, stakeholders and AI — to expand thinking.

• An understanding of how to identify potential leverage points rather than simply adding more effort.

• A personal or team Breakthrough Map.

• A concrete direction, experiment or next step for the challenge they worked on.

• A repeatable approach they can use with future challenges.

Most importantly, participants leave not only with ideas, but with movement:

A challenge that looked stuck at the beginning of the workshop now has a new way forward.

Workshop Format

The workshop can be adapted to individuals, management groups, project teams or leadership teams.

3-hour workshop
A focused Breakthrough Sprint. Participants work on one defined challenge through reframing, assumption challenging, idea generation and selection of a concrete next step.

Half-day / 4–5 hours
A deeper lab that allows more exploration, peer input, alternative perspectives and experimentation before translating the strongest ideas into action.

Full-day workshop
An immersive Breakthrough Lab for significant organizational or business challenges. Participants move through the complete process, explore multiple perspectives and possibilities, test potential directions and develop a more robust Breakthrough Plan.

The workshop can also be designed around one shared organizational challenge, with the entire management team working together to create a breakthrough around a strategic issue, initiative or opportunity.

Content, tools and exercises are tailored to the organization, participants and the types of challenges they want to address.