How can you improve creative problem-solving in your team?
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— The LinkedIn Team
Creative problem-solving is a vital skill for leaders who want to foster a culture of innovation and adaptability in their teams. It involves finding novel and effective solutions to complex and ambiguous challenges, using a combination of logic, intuition, and imagination. However, not everyone is naturally inclined to think creatively, and some may face barriers such as fear of failure, lack of time, or rigid mindsets. How can you, as a leader, help your team members overcome these obstacles and enhance their creative problem-solving abilities? Here are some tips to get you started.
Encourage curiosity and learning
One of the key drivers of creative problem-solving is curiosity, which motivates people to explore new possibilities, ask questions, and seek feedback. As a leader, you can foster curiosity in your team by creating a learning environment, where you encourage them to pursue their interests, share their insights, and access relevant resources. You can also model curiosity by showing your own enthusiasm for learning, asking open-ended questions, and admitting when you don't know something.
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In addition: 🔍 Encourage questions. Create a culture where team members feel comfortable asking questions, even if they seem basic or challenging. 🖋️ Provide learning opportunities. Workshops, training sessions & access to online courses relevant to their roles and interests. 📍 Give your team members the freedom to explore new ideas and approaches. And encourage experimentation. 📍Lead by example. Demonstrate curiosity and a passion for learning yourself. Be open to exploring new concepts and share your experiences with the team. 📍 Organize knowledge-sharing sessions for team members to share their learnings, experiences & insights with others. Set learning goals. Incorporate into performance evaluations
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Embrace diversity and collaboration
Another factor that boosts creative problem-solving is diversity, which brings different perspectives, experiences, and skills to the table. As a leader, you can embrace diversity in your team by valuing and respecting each member's unique contributions, and by creating opportunities for cross-functional and cross-cultural collaboration. You can also facilitate brainstorming sessions, where you invite your team to generate and share ideas without judgment, and use techniques such as mind mapping, SCAMPER, or reverse brainstorming to stimulate creative thinking.
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When encouraging diverse ideas, offer options for play. Lego Serious Play is an incredible hands on collaborative process that allows full mind/body engagement in learning and exploring processes, roles, or literally building 3D solution maps. And I have been amazed at what can be achieved with colorful post-its and a wall. Big solutions need big workspaces. Let the ideas spill wherever they need to.
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Provide autonomy and support
A third element that enhances creative problem-solving is autonomy, which gives people the freedom and responsibility to make their own decisions, experiment with new approaches, and learn from their mistakes. As a leader, you can provide autonomy to your team by setting clear goals and expectations, but allowing them to choose how to achieve them, and by delegating tasks and authority appropriately. You can also offer support by providing constructive feedback, coaching, and recognition, and by creating a safe space where your team can express their opinions, concerns, and emotions.
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The GOLDEN RULE TO UNLEASH CREATIVITY is to START POSTPONING YOUR JUDGMENT. In my experience as facilitator of innovation teams you can balance creativity and constraints in a perfect way following these three simple steps: 1. Draft an innovation assignment in which you state all the goals, all the constraints and all the criteria the new solutions have to meet. 2. Diverge by drafting a brainstorm assignment in the form of a “How can we …” question, and start brainstorming postponing your judgement, ignoring all constraints. 3. Converge by selecting the best solutions fitting all the constraints, and work them out as concepts, pretotypes and new business cases. Following these steps will make you an amazing innovator.
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Challenge and reward
A final component that influences creative problem-solving is challenge, which stimulates people to stretch their abilities, test their assumptions, and seek novel solutions. As a leader, you can challenge your team by exposing them to new situations, problems, and opportunities, and by asking them to challenge themselves and each other. You can also reward your team by celebrating their successes, acknowledging their efforts, and providing incentives that align with their values and motivations.
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Me: “Hey everyone / here’s the problem _______. What are your thoughts on it?” Team: “I think we should go this direction _______.” Me: Last one to give my opinion. Especially after I hear everyone’s input. Thanks - Sheila
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Here’s what else to consider
This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?
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Fazla kitabi buldum. Gerçek hayattan pratik örnekler iyi olurdu. Veya bilinmeyen yeni uygulamalar işave edilebilirdi. Mesela bizde “Anında Ödüllendirme” diye bir uygulama var. Her seviyede, herkesin, her an kullanabileceği bir uygulama ve çok teşvik edici oluyor.
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