Monday, February 14, 2011

Who Is On Your Dream Team?

For the last nine months, I've been working on the Tap Your Inner Genius program, designed to help individuals and teams recognize and utilize their inherent brilliance in their work and lives. One theme that has resurfaced many times in the research has been how collaborating with others takes our creativity to a higher level.

Specifically, we generate our best ideas when we have a team to work with where there is some common understanding of the objective and big picture, and each team member has their own areas of specialized knowledge that is different from other team members. In other words, we benefit from rubbing elbows and mixing our thoughts with a diverse group.

Since many of us work solo, or on teams where everyone has the same background and training, how would we assemble such a brainstorming team? And how would we best utilize our time together for generating ideas?

Here are five tips I've gleaned from the research and experimentation:
  • Bring together a group of 7 to 9 individuals who do not work together every day. According to research, this is the ideal number for creating an energetic, lively conversation that is still manageable and not too time consuming for everyone to participate.
  • Invite people from diverse specialties, like financial, legal, creative. We often hang out with our peers. Be adventurous and invite in sharp people from backgrounds you know little about.
  • Let there be a wide range of age and a good mix of gender. These multiple perspectives help us see challenges from lots of angles.
  • Alternate between individual time generating ideas in solitude and coming together to generate ideas in a group setting. You might circulate an email in advance of the in-person meeting stating what puzzle you want to solve and asking each person to come with 3 ideas. Then, when everyone convenes, those ideas will spark other ideas and you are off and running.
  • Be honest with yourself about what your strengths are and where you most need support to round out the skills available to you. The most accomplished people in every field surround themselves with capable support.
You may want to form a loose mastermind group that agrees to collaborate together to help each other arrive at innovative solutions for each other on a rotating basis. Or, you may choose to work with individuals who are good at things you aren't good at on a one-on-one basis. None of us is good at everything. Round out your team with people who think differently than you do. You may be surprised at what you co-create.