Analyzing the Team Building Phenomenon

Team Building Process

Examine the Five Team Processes that Encourage Innovation

Questioning

A leader is typically a determined questioner who demonstrates a zeal for inquiry. The queries of leaders often challenge how things in their jurisdiction currently stand. En masse, leaders' questions elicit novel insights, possibilities, directions, and connections. Innovators have been found to steadily display a high question-to-answer (Q/A) ratio; the questions typically outnumber answers and are also valued just as much as quality answers. Team leaders ought to be constantly asking their team "Why?," "What if?," and "Why not?" Such questions impose as well as eliminate limitations.

Observing

Furthermore, a leader is an intense observer who vigilantly keeps watch of his/her internal and external surroundings (i.e., services, products, customers, technologies, and rival firms). Leaders' observations assist them in acquiring ideas for, and an understanding of, novel ways to do things. Leaders must constantly and carefully keep an eye out for trivial behavioral facets of supplier, market, and competition's activities for obtaining a grasp of novel means to do things. Scott Cook, the founder of the software company Intuit, came up with the idea for his "Quicken" financial solution after seeing his wife struggling to keep up with household finances.

Networking

A leader devotes considerable energy and time to brainstorming and testing new ideas, by means of a diverse set of individuals, having widely varying perspectives and backgrounds. Instead of merely performing resource networking or social networking, leaders actively seek novel ideas by striking up conversations and discussions with individuals who might have a drastically different outlook towards things. By enrolling in courses on subjects outside of one's knowledge area, one can take part in any process or product one finds interesting, and browse through books on evolving trends. Leaders must identify ways of conducting small, frequent experiments at every organizational level.

Brainstorming Solutions and Associating the Deep Dive

This phase involves bringing every insight acquired via interviews and observation back to "Deep Dive" -- an open brainstorming session, in which every participating individual is allowed to openly share every bit of knowledge acquired during the information gathering stage (known as "downloading"). It is, in essence, a session of storytelling that encompasses plenty of details concerning individual lives. In this session, team members are able to capture insights, details, observations, and quotes, as well as share and compare notes, photos, and videos. The discussion must have the team's leader in the role of a facilitator; however, at this point, there isn't any real hierarchy or title. Status is achieved by producing the best of ideas, and every participant is given equal chance to voice his/her ideas. Subsequent to the idea sharing stage, team members get to work brainstorming design solutions to the various issues witnessed by them. Associational thinking must be actively supported in the brainstorming stage.

Prototyping

Lastly, innovators are consistently endeavoring to run through novel experiences and pilot new ideas. Experimenters incessantly survey the world experientially and intellectually, holding back convictions as well as testing hypotheses. They pay visits to new places, pursue new information, experiment to broaden their knowledge base (i.e., discover and understand new things) and attempt new things (Dyer, Gregersen, & Christensen, 2011). Prototyping skill involves identifying linkages between problems, ideas or questions from unrelated areas, prompted by novel information gleaned via questioning, networking, observation, and experimentation. It catalyzes creative idea generation and implementation.

How It Relates to Team Leaders

A team leader is charged with assembling a team and leading it to ideal performance outcomes. Effective leaders realize the significance of accepting the differences in individuals, and are aware of how they can find connections, despite those differences, and consequently glean the best team outcomes. This cultivates an organizational environment of constant improvements, initiative, and innovation. Leaders should cultivate commitment, among team members, to adopt an innovative mindset wherein every member learns to take advantage of interpersonal differences to achieve both personal and organizational success (Llopis, 2014). A leader embodies his/her firm's innovation goals and strategies. Examples of organizational leadership tasks proven to be related to innovative and creative outcomes are as follows:

Resources: Usually, innovation is a resource intensive endeavor. Resources are required for both extensive innovation efforts, and small projects aiming to explore a new idea. A leader is in charge of resource management, i.e., management of organizational money, facilities, time, knowledge, and information.