Innovation and creativity are essential for any team that wants to thrive in a competitive and dynamic environment. But how can you foster these qualities in your team members and help them collaborate effectively? In this article, we will explore some of the best team development models that can enhance your team's performance and potential.
One of the most widely used team development models is Tuckman's stages of group development, which describes the four phases that teams go through: forming, storming, norming, and performing. In the forming stage, team members get to know each other and establish goals and expectations. In the storming stage, team members experience conflicts and disagreements as they try to assert their opinions and roles. In the norming stage, team members resolve their differences and develop norms and rules for working together. In the performing stage, team members work efficiently and effectively towards their common objectives. This model can help you understand the challenges and opportunities that your team faces at each stage and provide appropriate guidance and support.
The Tuckman's stages can help foster innovation and creativity by allowing team members to get to know each other and establish goals, resolve conflicts that may arise based off opinions and ideas so that they work together effectively and achieve desired goals.
Another useful team development model is Hackman's model of team effectiveness , which identifies three conditions that influence how well a team performs: the design of the team , the support of the organization, and the coaching of the team leader. The design of the team refers to the clarity and alignment of the team's purpose, goals, tasks, and composition. The support of the organization refers to the availability and adequacy of the resources, incentives, and information that the team needs. The coaching of the team leader refers to the skills and behaviors that the team leader exhibits to facilitate the team's processes and interactions. This model can help you assess and improve the factors that affect your team's outcomes and satisfaction.
A third team development model that can help you foster innovation and creativity is Lencioni's five dysfunctions of a team, which identifies the five common pitfalls that can derail a team's performance: absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results. These dysfunctions are interrelated and can create a vicious cycle of dysfunction and underperformance. To overcome these dysfunctions, Lencioni suggests that teams need to build trust by being vulnerable and honest with each other, embrace constructive conflict by engaging in healthy debates and feedback, achieve commitment by clarifying and aligning on decisions and actions, enforce accountability by holding each other responsible for standards and expectations, and focus on results by prioritizing collective goals over individual agendas. This model can help you diagnose and address the issues that prevent your team from reaching its full potential.
A fourth team development model that can enhance your team's innovation and creativity is Belbin's team roles, which describes the nine roles that people tend to play in a team: plant, resource investigator, coordinator, shaper, monitor evaluator, team worker, implementer, completer finisher, and specialist. These roles are based on the strengths and preferences of each team member and can complement each other to create a balanced and effective team. By understanding your own and your team members' roles, you can leverage your diversity and optimize your collaboration. You can also identify and fill any gaps or overlaps in your team's roles and adjust them according to the needs and demands of the situation.
A fifth team development model that can stimulate your team's innovation and creativity is 6-3-5 brainwriting, which is a technique that involves six participants, three ideas, and five rounds of idea generation. In this technique, each participant writes down three ideas on a sheet of paper in response to a problem or question. Then, they pass their sheet to the next participant, who reads the ideas and adds three more. This process continues for five rounds, resulting in 108 ideas in total. The advantage of this technique is that it allows participants to build on each other's ideas without verbal communication or judgment, thus reducing social pressure and enhancing creativity. You can use this technique to generate a large number of diverse and original ideas in a short time.
I believe 6-3-5 brainwriting is an amazing divergent thinking technique. Its power comes from the following: - It creates a shared ownership of ideas as they are built over each other. Entire team contributes to the end results. - It allows collaboration in a non-verbal way which allows everybody to speak with no judgement, or peer pressure. - It democratizes idea generation process by giving equal chances to all participants. It does not allow a participant dominate the activity. - It is a very quick and efficient divergent thinking technique as it creates focus by separating convergent and divergent thinking techniques. - Its resulting ideas can be improved by including participants with diverse backgrounds.
Effective team development models to foster innovation and creativity include the "Innovation Ambition Matrix" and the "FourSight" framework. The Innovation Ambition Matrix encourages teams to categorize ideas based on feasibility and impact, guiding them to focus on high-impact, feasible innovations. The FourSight model incorporates four thinking styles - clarifying, ideating, developing, and implementing - fostering a holistic approach to problem-solving. Both models emphasize diversity of thought, collaboration, and a structured yet flexible process, creating an environment conducive to innovation and creative problem-solving within teams.
In "Innovation to the Core", Peter Skarzynski and Rowan Gibson identify 3 preconditions for innovation: Time and Space: While we expect innovation, we rarely prioritize this above our customer commitments. Creating an independent team with deliverables is a key for success. Diversity: Diversity brings different viewpoints and experiences to the team. Mixing different personality types, thinking styles, age groups, expertise areas, and life experiences creates various complementary perspectives. Connection and conversation: After creating time, space, and diverse teams, you need to connect these people and let them communicate and exchange ideas. Modern companies solve this by easing the boundaries created by organizational hierarchy.