Week 2 Discussion Innov

Respond to 2 Colleagues Discussion post. Both Colleagues post are attached. Be sure to use Headings/Templates provided.

Please use Headings/Templates provided below when responding to the 2 Colleagues. Use APA citations and References

Read

 

a selection of your colleagues’ postings.

Respond to two of your colleagues in one or more of the following ways:

· Sharing an insight you gained from reading your colleagues’ postings and exploring how you will apply this insight to your professional career and managerial practices.

· Based on details of a colleague’s analysis, sharing from your own observations or experiences related to the challenges of successfully leading a diverse group in a unified direction and offering lessons you learned from those observations or experiences.

· Suggesting an alternate or modified approach to leading diverse groups towards success and illustrating why those might work better.

You are required to organize your response to your colleagues’ discussion posts using this template. These headings are mandatory! Put your thoughts under each heading.

 

Sharing an insight you gained from reading your colleagues’ postings and exploring how you will apply this insight to your professional career and managerial practices.

Based on details of a colleague’s analysis, sharing from your own observations or experiences related to the challenges of successfully leading a diverse group in a unified direction and offering lessons you learned from those observations or experiences.

Suggesting an alternate or modified approach to leading diverse groups towards success and illustrating why those might work better.

APA References

 

*1st Colleague to respond to:

An analysis of the barriers that prevented the group from leveraging their differences and creating innovative ideas.

The first obvious barrier in preventing this group from creating innovative ideas is lack of communication, followed by difficulty in creating an initial plan. Although these four employees were in fact thrown together with no apparent strategic thinking, as coworkers, it is their job to effectively work together to meet the goals laid out from their employer. It seems they have already started the project on the wrong foot and need to actively work together in order to be successful with this project.

 

Three suggested ways that their process could be improved, despite their different styles.

1. Establish a project roadmap and plan. “When there are no clearly defined goals for the team to achieve, the team members do not have a way of utilizing their individual talents and they have no way of pooling those talents toward achieving a common result” (Root, n.d.). In this step, the team should add necessary steps to “clarify the problem, generate ideas, develop solutions and implement the plan” (Puccio, n.d.).

2. Identify and use each team member’s knowledge, experience and ideas to the fullest. Although a variation in creative styles can lead to barriers as displayed here, it can also lead to success. Leveraging the different types of creative styles is to the team’s best interest for the success of the project.

3. Work together instead of taking an entire week to divide and brainstorm solutions as Max suggested. The team should break down each stage as I mentioned above and work together to do so. It may be best to take one day to brainstorm individually and then conduct a working session to brainstorm and make a decision as to how to best move forward. Each team member should be a part of making decisions for the roadmap to success.

 

An explanation of how you would approach the scenario differently and lead the group towards success if you were asked to lead the team.

I have participated in many group projects and it’s almost inevitable to have some sort of barrier when doing so, however in my experience, when lead efficiently, these can be minimized. As a leader I would follow the above suggested ways to go about establishing a process. I would encourage the team that although we all have different thoughts and ideas, they are best served when working together. As a leader I would listen to all ideas in a brainstorming session and after everything is on the table, I would encourage the team to have conversations to make decisions as to the best suited step and action for each. I would also establish a timeline for the entire project as a first step to allow plenty of time.

 

A description of how you would implement the three ways you identified above to help the group improve.

1. Establish a roadmap and plan. I would take lead to develop a timeline and steps to reach that timeline. I would hold a brainstorming session with the team following creation of the roadmap and work together to establish the plan and put it into motion.

2. During that brainstorming session, it will become clear as to who can offer up what in during the project. I would then utilize this information and assign portions of the project to each team member, taking volunteers first. As a leader, its important to identify creative styles and distribute project assignments that best suit the individual for the amount of time given. If the timeline were much longer than the proposed, I may distribute assignments by area of improvement for each team member.

 

Finally, include an explanation of how you could use the strategies described in this week’s chapter from Creative leadership: Skills that drive change to accommodate the diversity of thinking styles to lead the group in a unified direction.

Strategies for accommodating diverse creative and thinking styles can vary on occasion. To problem solve, it may be necessary to clarify, transform and implement, which is what I established as suggestions to help improve upon the team’s processes. Taking time to develop a strategic plan and roadmap in the beginning of a project is essentially the key to it’s overall success, especially when working with teams.

 

APA References

N., George. (n.d.). Biggest Barriers to Teamwork. Small Business – Chron.com. Retrieved from 

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/biggest-barriers-teamwork-11451.html

Puccio, G. J. (2006). Tapping into our creative thinking skills to manage complex problems [Powerpoint]. Faculty Institute on Teaching and Learning-RIT, International Center for Studies in Creativity,State University of New York, Buffalo State. Retrieved from 

https://www2.rit.edu/fitl/presentations_2006/TappingIntoCreativeThinkingSkills

*2nd Colleague to respond to:

An analysis of the barriers that prevented the group from leveraging their differences and creating innovative ideas

The main problem that comes to mind in the video when I look at the team is that there are conflicts for motivation and misunderstandings. There seems to be confusion on what the team wants as a whole. It seems that Max has no motivation at all, while the others have their own motivation and thought processes. The difference in mind settings will be what affects the overall team and the outcomes. which will take away from the group. Although differences are pointed out, they could lead to success as many employees who fail or make mistakes are ultimately innovative (Weis,2018).

Three suggested styles that their process could be improved despite their different styles

Implementing a plan and developing solutions  that are in agreement with team team members could improve the overall success of the team (Prichard, 2013). I would also say constant communication between each other so that the team understands each other would be great. Communication is key in everything that we do as it allows the communicator to convey their ideas and receive feedback and questions. 

A description of how you would implement the three ways you identified above to help the group improve.

 The first meeting that we have would identify each person strengths and weaknesses and we would develop team assignments based off of that.  A leader would be in place to keep the team organized and serve as the go to person for all needs. The team would vote on that leader. 

A description of how you would implement the three ways you identified above to help the group improve.

The plan would be implemented at our first meeting with all team members engaged with their ideas. There would be a Plan A and B for the plan with different processes and solutions to be put in place for anything that we could think of that may come up. Lastly,  communication would be needed as each individual would have their tasks assigned based off of their strengths and weaknesses. 

Finally, include an explanation of how you could use the strategies described in this week’s chapter from Creative leadership: Skills that drive change to accommodate the diversity of thinking styles to lead the group in a unified direction.

Developing the strategy of creating the plan, finding solutions would be the breakthrough for the team and constantly keep everyone on the same page. This idea is one that would ultimately contribute to innovation as a whole because of what is required. 

APA References

Prichard, S. (n.d.) What creative style are you? Retrieved October 5, 2013, from http://www.skipprichard.com/which-creative-style-are-you/

Weis, D. (2018). Giving employees permission to fail is a formula for innovation at 3M. Retrieved January 30, 2019, from https://www.aem.org/news/giving-employees-permission-to-fail-is-a-formula-for-innovation-at-3m/