COVID-19 “Quaranteams” and Innovation Teams

With no end in sight in having to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and Fall and Winter approaching in the Northern Hemisphere, we are hearing more and more about the bad effects of social isolation. As a result of this situation the use of “quaranteams” is a growing suggestion to try to manage the social risks involving this pandemic.

But what is a quaranteam, and how does it relate to innovation?

A quaranteam is a small group of people who form a tight-knit social circle that limits its interaction with people outside their group, and conversely seeks to meet its members emotional and social needs primarily from each other.

They also are called quarantine bubbles or pandemic pods and they consist of generally 10 or fewer individuals who have agreed to limit their social interactions only to each other.

With regard to those outside of the group, members agree to follow recommended precautions such as social distancing and masking, along with any other rules the members agree to. For parents, they may offer the chance to share childcare and enable their children to interact in person with other children and adults who are part of their quarantine pod.

Last month I introduced the concept of Innovation Teams and while I am not advocating the use of quaranteams, I wanted to discuss their formation and operation because there are significant parallels to the use of teams for innovation.

These parallels involve choosing team members, defining rules for their operation, setting objectives, and having open communication – which will result obtaining the benefits for not trying to “go it alone” either with innovation or dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Benefits of Quaranteaming

Experts state that connecting with others offers mental and emotional health benefits, even while practicing social distancing during the current pandemic.

Research has shown that quarantine bubbles can effectively limit the risk of contracting COVID-19, while enabling people to have needed social interactions with their friends and family.

When all of the social distancing options were evaluated, quaranteaming was the most effective at “flattening the curve” of cases. New Zealand implemented a quarantine bubble strategy earlier this year, and it has had good results from their use.

When parents need to work from home it can be difficult to make sure their children who also at home get the attention and stimulation they need because the parents can be preoccupied with their work responsibilities. The use of quaranteams can provide a break for some of the parents by the other parents supervising the children while they are given the opportunity to socialize with the other children.

How to Build A Quarantine Bubble

To form an effective quaranteam everyone in the group must agree to follow the rules and be honest and open about their actions with outsiders. This means everyone adheres to the rules with regards to playgrounds, beaches, and other outside areas where both they and their kids might come into close contact with others.

This requires that communication should be honest and prompt regarding non-agreed contact with others or exposures to pandemic situations. Because the knowledge about COVID-19 is changing and evolving, people need to stay abreast of new developments and modify the rules as needed.

Just like typical back-to-school shopping involves researching what will be necessary for the new school year, families with children can partake in searching for compatible families to bubble up with.

With regard to choosing pod members, finding potential people who might have suitable  interests or skills can be beneficial. Some examples are, enjoying vigorous exercise, cooking skills for common meals, or compatible political views.

Choosing Innovation Team Members

As we have seen, the benefits of forming close-knit quaranteams to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic are manifold. Likewise, the use of a team of people to develop an innovation is advantageous in many ways.

Just like finding the correct members for a quaranteam is critical, choosing the proper Innovation Team members is paramount.

In selecting team members an unwitting creation of a comfortable clone situation can occur, in which team leadership surrounds itself with people who think alike, have corresponding roles within the organization, and who have similar interests and backgrounds. Because the participants are so similar, they get along very well, but creative and innovative results are reduced or lacking.

Numerous studies have shown for innovation in groups to be successful, cross-functional innovation teams must be used. Additionally, the teams should include people who have different perspectives on and orientations to the world because these influence how each person views what the outcome of an innovative effort should be.

A cross-functional team might include persons from marketing, sales, production, engineering, warehousing, delivery, finance and IT.

An example of this is at Xerox PARC, where social scientists work alongside computer scientists to create innovations that are more appealing to customers than if they had only been designed by technologically driven people. Apple has become a master at creating “cool” products by including a wide variety of team members to develop products that are technologically advanced and socially appealing to the end-user.

Innovation Team Leadership and Facilitation

A key component of successful innovation is that the team leader understands his or her own thinking style and those of the team members. The goal is to create whole-brained teams by identifying the styles that are missing and then adding the missing styles. This requires letting management know the type of team members it is missing so management knows who to look for.

The overall objective is to manage the different approaches that team members use with regard to innovation to create a productive process by allowing them to grate against each other to develop “creative abrasion”. This desirable result does not just happen, the team leader must facilitate it so that creative abrasion is a positive experience, not something that renders the team dysfunctional.

Team Member Interaction

Because of the desire to have a diverse group of team members, it is crucial to keep the project’s goal in front of the group at all times, otherwise each of the participants may go in his or her own direction, leading to debilitating conflict.

An easy way to do this is to simply write down the overall goal of the innovation project at the top of the white board where they meet. Thereafter, if the group starts to drift, all that is necessary is to point out the objective and encourage everyone to work together toward the objective.

To assist in maintaining team focus, it is imperative to define the problem that is trying to be solved. It is amazing how many times innovation teams fail because the members never really agree on the problem they are attempting to solve because each person has his or her own interpretation of it.

Effectively Using Innovation Teams in A Company or Organization

In summary, effective use of Innovation Teams involves three steps:

1.    Establish a team that possess a cross-functional skill set including members that have different interests and backgrounds and various perspectives on and orientations to the innovation task at hand.

2.    Make sure the innovation team leader understands his or her own thinking style and develops the creation of whole-brained teams that employ “creative abrasion” to develop superior innovations.

3.    Ensure team members agree on the problem they are attempting to solve, keep the project’s goal in front of them at all times, and encourage them to work together towards that objective.

If you would like assistance with effectively using innovation teams in your company or organization, please contact us using the information below so we can be a resource to you in this important area.

Fountainhead Consulting Group, Inc. is an Innovation and Business Planning firm. During the past 17, years we have shown over 1,200 companies how to achieve their goals by using our unique, comprehensive, and systematic FastTrak Innovation Program?, Innovation Academy?, and Structure of Success? methodologies. Using the components in these methodologies, each month we examine an aspect of how to transform your business or organization into a true 21st Century enterprise.

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