What Do Effective Teams Focus On?

Effective teams and organizations are successful when they focus on a more holistic approach to solving problems, making decisions or creating innovative solutions. We call that Whole Brain® Thinking and it is just as important for teams to create results around the many business issues they face as it is for an organization as a whole.  Literature is filled with examples on how companies almost lost their intellectual capital by not properly protecting it during a launch…Just as often, we’ll hear about a wonderful new product or service that was never able to get off the ground because it wasn’t financially viable or there wasn’t a realistic implementation plan.  Looking at the criteria in each of the quadrants below, which of these do your teams most focus on?  Where might you consistently fall short?

STRATEGIC ISSUES MODEL

Key Takeaway: The Whole Brain® model can be very useful in helping teams strategically think through all aspects and critical elements of solving a problem, managing a new product or initiative and looking for innovative solutions to current business challenges.  Where does your team focus?  Do you spend the majority of your time in one quadrant to the detriment of another?  Do you have the type of thinking on your team to cover all of these quadrants?  To short-cut this even more, think of the four quadrants using words that begin with a specific letter.  Example) To remember the quadrants, try using words that begin with P:

• What is the PROBLEM and type of data we have on defining a particular issue?
• What is the POTENTIAL or POSSIBILITIES we would like to see?
• Who are the PEOPLE this initiative will impact whether team members, customers, or partners and how will they respond?
• What PROCESSES need to be in place around the implementation?

Spending equal time with all four quadrants as part of any project or business challenge…it will support any team with break-through solutions!