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1 • The Creative Team - Part 2

Separating your creative from your critical thinking is, as we have seen, basic to imaginative thinking under any circumstances. By alternating the team thinking with individual thinking, you combine the advantages of introspection and mind-searching, which can best be done by the individual alone, with the benefits of cross-fertilization and sparked associations which come from one mind stimulating another. For purposes of clarity, the various steps the team goes through to combine these principles will be broken down as separate activities. It will readily be recognized that, in actual practice, many of these individual steps can be, and are, compressed into single sessions or single phases of processing the problem:

1.        The first step is a creative act done by the individuals alone. This is to try to define the general problem area. It is better to start with at least two conceptions of this.

2.        Next is an evaluative step taken by the team together. They compare their initial understandings of the problem, and either reach a final agreement on what the general problem really is or submit their disagreements to an arbiter for clarification. At the conclusion of this phase, both members of the team should have exactly the same problem in mind, and both should be certain that this is the right problem.

3.        This, again, is an imaginative step to be taken by the individuals alone. It consists of each of the team members breaking down the general problem into its component sub problems. It is best done by the individuals, because no two minds will ever work in exactly the same way, and you can be sure that, working alone, both members will come up with at least slightly different lists of minor problems to be solved in the over-all general problem.

4.        The next step is a two-part activity for the team that will call mostly for evaluative thinking: consolidating the individual lists of sub problems and searching for the key sub problem. This is the most important of the minor factors, the one that seems to offer the greatest danger of holding up solution of other parts of the big over-all problem. Once this "key" is agreed upon, the team can then go to work on it as their problem (and for the rest of this outline, the word "problem" will refer to this key sub problem which has been selected for the initial creative attack).

5.        Next the individuals go back to being individuals in a separate search for the facts needed to solve the agreed upon key problem. This again takes advantage of the diverse characteristics of two minds, since the two minds will each approach the job of collecting information in a different way. It multiplies effort where effort can stand multiplication. (This is distinctly different from a duplication of effort. Duplication would result if the team were to search out factual background as a team.)

6.        The team do get together, however, to consolidate their information. In this step, which will be largely evaluative, they compare and discuss, combine and discard. For almost any problem, such a comparing of "facts" will disclose at least some discrepancies and, possibly, outright conflicts caused by an acceptance of faulty information by one or the other of the team members. Depending upon their relative importance, such inconsistencies should be resolved or the questioned information should be dropped from consideration.

7.        Once all information has been pooled, the next stage is for the individuals to go into individual creative sessions to think up ideas as possible solutions to the problem. It would make sense if, at this stage, they were working on some agreed upon quota. ("Let's see if we can each think up at least five different things we could do.")

8.        The next step is to pool ideas and try to add more possibilities as a team. All ideas should be listed for later consideration by both team members as individuals. During this stage, no evaluation whatever should be attempted. It is a purely creative step.

9.        Now, individually, working from duplicate lists of all the ideas produced, each spends time evaluating and judging the ideas. As a refinement of the method of each person selecting one single idea, it is better if they each try to select what they consider the best two or three possibilities out of the combined total listing.

10.        The next step is, again, an evaluative one, but this time as a team. Here is where the team finally turn into a "supreme court" on everything they've been doing so far, and attempt to reach agreement on which of their ideas is the best, or seems to offer the best opportunities for future development. The team should come out of this with one idea rated "number one"—even if it means that they rank two or three others as first- and second-choice "alternates."

11.        Another "creative" step follows in which the individuals, as individuals, pit their imaginations against the problem of determining what the next step should be—some course of action, either investigating or activating, which will result in action on the idea or ideas they have developed. This is followed by—

12. The team, again evaluating, agreeing on the course of action to be taken and then initiating the action.

Any "seasoned" business executive reading through such a detailed breakdown can be excused for scoffing somewhat at the thought that he has to go through any such rigmarole in order to get something done with another person. However, we are not, in this book, concerned with the way people have always done things. The team method outlined has been tested and refined in actual use and has been found to increase productivity. And, if you will find yourself an open-minded teammate and try it a few times, you will be pleasantly surprised at the increase in quality of your problem solutions.

As already mentioned, however, you will seldom, in actual practice, work in such clear-cut steps as these. But again, if you are deliberately trying to solve an important problem, it could pay you to deliberately follow these steps. Or, if you find that you and a co-worker are having trouble resolving a problem, it might be beneficial to check back through this method to see if you have missed any steps that might have been vital to the progress on your problem.

Related terms include business management consulting and business challenges.