If you have been a part of a team, you are aware that certain members gravitate towards certain tasks every time. What is going on? I would also wager a bet that you lean towards those tasks that give you energy as well, or at least towards tasks that do not drain you as much.

Last week I wrote about how to stretch your brain so you can begin to see the world a little differently, and therefore see problems differently.

This week, I want to share what problem solving looks like on a team and how breaking that team apart may yield better results.

Great dividing and conquering!

       "What is now proved was once only imagined."

                                                                                                                         William Blake

Last week, you will recall I summarized Ned Herrmann's Whole Brain Model that identifies four unique ways of thinking. The beauty of this model is that very few of us use only A or B or C or D when thinking or communicating.

Take a few moments now to look at these sixteen descriptors and choose four that best describe how you think and not how you wished you would think. The distribution of these four styles includes 2 % preferring all four, 6% prefers only one of four, 33% prefers three of these four and 59% prefers two of these four ways of thinking:

A Quadrant:

Logical, analytical, quantitative, fact based

B Quadrant:

Planning, detailed, sequential, safekeeping

C Quadrant:  

Feelings, relationships, interpersonal, storytelling

D Quadrant:

Intuitive, entrepreneur, imaginative, risk taker

Ned Herrmann also identified how these four quadrants or ways of thinking solves problems on a team. First, let's identify the eight steps in creative problem solving:

Problem awareness, information gathering, problem statement, goal statement, idea generation, idea selection, implementation and evaluation.

Now let's look at how these eight steps and the four quadrants interplay:

Problem Awareness: A, B, C, D

Information Gathering: A and B

Produce Problem Statement: A

Produce Goal Statement: A and D

Idea Generation: D

Idea Selection: A, B, C, D

Implementation of Ideas: B and C

Evaluation of Process: A and B

Ideally, if you knew your brain dominance and those of your teammates, you could just plug yourself into those activities of problem solving that give you energy and would most likely be your best work.

This is exactly what many teams are doing today. Have you heard of skunk works? This word originated in the manufacturing world and involved taking R & D (research and development) employees offsite so they could create the next series of products for their company.

In other words, they took D quadrant thinkers away from everyone else and allowed them to "free flow" brain storm without the critical eye of the other quadrants (whose ways of thinking hurt the idea generation phase but are critical in other phases).

Question for You:

Does your team use all of its members in all phases of its problem solving process? Do you find certain members possibly holding back from idea generation for fear of criticism?

Action for You:

Have your team profiled using an assessment like the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument to quickly determine their thinking preference and where they are best suited in this problem solving process. If you are not able to do this, share the eight step process above  and allow members to self-select into these groups. Do not be afraid to divide the team into these eight categories, especially allowing the D quadrants to physically go to a different location where they can use their imaginative, entrepreneurial way of thinking to come up with crazy ideas that the other quadrants will later chisel away.  Ultimately there will emerge a few outstanding "gem" ideas that may solve your team's problem in a radical new way.

"It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all."

Edward de Bono