Team Think
Working on innovation and creativity with a team can return multiples of rewards providing the team has good chemistry. A badly organized Team Think is more than a waste of time. It is damaging.
Any collection of individuals will work. The trick is to have a good Team Think leader. A leader who can identify the other members strengths and weaknesses. The environment must be free from criticism and foster fellowship where everyone feels comfortable. A great team leader is very rare.
Let me further express my enthusiasm for a well defined team. Here’s an example. Let’s say you are working with a team. Let’s further say the team consists of 10 members ranging in age between 25 and 55. Let’s again assume that the average age of the entire team is 40.Then, by definition you have brought together 10 members times 40 average years, 400 years of human experiences to solve your problem. Every person on that team comes from a different background and culture, education and life experiences, economic and geographic.
All 400 years of experience represent totally different perspectives. And, as we have learned from the previous discussion, different perspectives mean different information and different ways of solving the same problem. Respect the use of teams, respect your team members, and figure out how to lead them to greatness.
“A mind stretched to a new idea, never returns to its original dimension.”
–Oliver Wendell Homes
Lon Safko
Serial Innovator, Keynote Speaker, Trainer, Innovative Thinking
Tags: innovative thinking, creative, creative thinking, Innovation, critical thinking definition, innovation definition, critical thinking skills, creative process