Team Work and Creativity

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Team Work and Creativity

• Why work in a team? I can do it better myself.

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Things Researchers and Other Smart People Know
about Working in Teams

• The Ability to work in Teams is one of the Top
  Five Skills that Employers look for in hiring and
  promoting
• Companies that utilize teams in development of
  products, etc. benefit greatly because..

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Teams bring a diversity of skills and
perspectives to bear on any given problem.
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Things Researchers and Other Smart People Know
about Creativity

• People who critically and creatively think are
  more likely to be successful in school
• People who critically and creatively think are
  more likely to be successful in work settings
• People who think creatively are more likely to
  describe their lives as fulfilling and satisfying

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Working with Others

• Task Processes Specific interactions that focus
  on the job at hand
• Transactional Processes interactions that carry
  communication about
• individuals
• the team
• the task processes
• Without transactional processes, we cant do the
  task processes

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What makes a team?

• Work group Relies primarily on the individual
  contribution of its members for group performance
• Team Strives for a magnified impact that is
  incremental to what its members could achieve in
  their individual roles

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Definition

• A team is a diverse group of people who share
  leadership responsibility for creating a group
  identity in an interconnected effort to achieve a
  mutually defined goal within the context of other
  groups and systems.

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Diverse

• Specific and Different Resources and Abilities
  are Needed

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Shared Leadership

• Because of the diversity and the specificity of
  the task, every member must guide the team
  whether there is a designated leader or not

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A Created Identify

• A team self-image that becomes a cohesive and
  motivating force

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Interconnected Efforts

• Efforts constantly weave and coordinate the
  contributions of each member

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Mutually defined goal

• Communicate intensely to develop goals and ways
  to achieve them

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Context

• Work is affected by the context, the environment,
  and the system within which it works.

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The Creative Process

• As Described by Roger von Oech

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The Different Types of Creative Thinking

• Explorer
• Artist
• Judge
• Warrior

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Explorer

• Provides the Raw Materials from which new ideas
  are made
• facts
• concepts
• experiences
• knowledge
• feelings
• etc.

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Explorer

• Dares to go where no one has gone before
• Using only safe routes is not exploration
• Need to look in uncharted territory
• Need to wander how it all fits in
• Need to feel a little lost
• Need to pay attention to unusual
• patterns
• Need to Use different senses

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When have you been an explorer?
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Artist

• Takes the raw material and makes something new
  from it
• experiment with variety of approaches
• Ask what if questions
• Break the rules or create new ones

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When have you been an artist?
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Judge

• Ideas are great, but decisions have to be made!
• Is this idea good?
• Is it worth pursuing
• Will it give me the return I want?
• Do I have the resources to make it happen?

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Judge

• Evaluate and critically weigh the evidence
• Look for drawbacks
• Wonder if it will work
• Question your assumptions
• Listen to your gut
• Make a Decision!

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When have you been a Judge?
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Warrior

• Implement your Idea!
• Take the Idea into Action!
• Be offensive!

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Warrior

• Need to develop a strategy
• Be flexible enough to change it
• Commit yourself to reaching your objective

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Warrior

• Overcome
• excuses
• idea killers
• temporary setbacks
• other obstacles
• Need to have the courage to do what is necessary

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When have you been a Warrior?
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Review

• Your Explorer is your role for searching for new
  information and resources
• Your Artist is your role for turning those
  resources into new ideas
• Your Judge is your role for evaluating the merits
  of an idea and deciding what to do with it and
• Your Warrior is your role for carrying your idea
  into action.

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Creative Process

• Linear Progression??
• Likely you will use Explorer role in earlier
  stages,
• Artist and Judge in the middle stage
• Warrior in the later stages
• But, there should be a fair amount of shifting
  around

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Two Main Reasons for Failure

• Weak Roles
• Bad Timing

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Use It or Lose It

• You have to make a deliberate effort to get and
  keep all of your creative roles

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Timing is Everything

• Knowing when to use your roles is vitally
  important to your success. For example
• Using your judge when you need to explore
• Using your artist to implement your idea
• Need to Shift to Roles when it is Necessary

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Getting Stuck in a Role

• Explorer Never get around to making sense of
  ideas
• Artist Spend all your time working and
  re-working your creation not letting go
• Judge Inhibit your artist and spend so much time
  evaluating that you never make a decision
• Warrior Rush into action whether you are ready
  or not

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Team Work and Creativity
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Questions.

• Describe the Role(s) in the Creative Process that
  you Feel Most Comfortable With.
• Describe the Role(s) that is Most Unfamiliar and
  Uncomfortable for you.

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Questions...

• How could Utilizing a Team be Useful in the
  Creative Process?