The Art of Creative Teamwork: Breaking Down Barriers to Success

Chuck McVinney, a team & creative problem-solving expert is our guest author.

There’s encouraging and expanding interest in the hidden potentials of creative and collaborative teamwork. There are several ways to ensure and improve collaboration in teams, especially during these times of potentially greater conflict and uncertainty. Here are a few we might consider:

 1.        Since hierarchal organizations depend on power and direction from “the top,” leadership throughout the organization is expected to think and act top-down as well. The “strong leader model” though, may tend to undermine agency among employees. Agency is the combined power and license to think out of the box, push cultural boundaries, and challenge the status quo with creative ideas. Evidence suggests that ’empowered teams’ function more creatively, democratically and openly.

 2.        Teams don’t necessarily deal effectively with conflicts that may arise between members. Exploring conflicts openly and discussing honestly the differences between us are essential for finding resolution and possible new ideas for moving forward. Distinguishing between how we think and what we think is a tool for teams to do this better. Learning how to think and practice positive confrontational dynamics actually leads to better outcomes between team members AND more innovative solutions for the team.

3.        Individuals don’t always know how to be accountable for the whole team’s success. Blame and triangulation are the biggest barriers to creating a common success strategy. Negotiating and sharing responsibilities for the team’s expected or desired outcomes is a ground rule that we need to learn to do better and more consistently. We must remember that holding each other accountable goes hand in hand with supporting each other’s success.

4.        Teams that learn together succeed together.  Being able to learn from each other and with each other is crucial for team development and performance. Related to team learning is the continual honest sharing and feedback about our collective and individual performance.  However, the best guidelines for sharing feedback are not the conventional ones usually imposed by corporate policies. Successful feedback and shared learning is complex, sophisticated and requires skill and practice.

5.        Finally, teams need better ways to celebrate and enjoy their successes. Research supports the notion that setbacks are inevitable and that they tend to dominate our view of the work experience. But successes are just as important, and we can learn as much from them as we do from setbacks. So, instead of being negative about what doesn’t go well, teams need a way of learning from those failures while highlighting more earnestly and enjoyably what is working. Dealing better with setbacks while better leveraging successes keeps morale higher and helps us build a growth mindset.

Key Takeaways: As always, Whole Brain Creativity enhances and enables all of these previous points. The Whole Brain Model after all, describes differences in how we think. By being aware of these distinctions, we can better address the contents of our thinking. In other words, how we think holds hands with what we think. A deeper understanding of those dynamics opens the way to stronger relationships, expanded empathy, and potentially more innovative results.