Discussion Question

Read a selection of your colleagues’ postings.

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

· Expand upon or suggest alternative approaches to your colleague’s plan by drawing upon the resources and materials from this course. Justify your contributions with an explanation as to why you think your suggestions will improve the plan.

· Share a professional experience that would be relevant and helpful to the plan presented by your colleague. Explain how your experience is relevant and helpful.

· Share an insight you gained from your colleague’s presentation that you would like to use in your workplace and describe how you would envision using it.

MUST USE FOR Response to Colleagues Template

Expansion of a Colleagues Plan with Justification

Share a Helpful Professional Experience

Share a Colleague’s Insight That You Would Use in Your Workplace

APA References

1st Colleague to respond to:

How You Would Bring a Team Together & Lead Them to Start Such an Initiative

My management preference as a leader, is to have biweekly meetings with my team and 1 on 1’s. Why? Because not everyone is comfortable talking or communicating with others at the beginning. I have utilized this process before of which once a person is able to relate and show their strengths, I promote the two different meeting sessions. The three times I have utilized this method of communication, I have only had to conduct three 1 on 1’s. Then everyone is comfortable with each other and understands each other roles, expertise and also realizes they can learn from each other. Because of the differences, whether it is creativity, or education it ultimately brings understanding with each other and the relationships are relaxed to listen and ask each other questions to help one another. “I like to take the time to weigh different solutions and then turn the best in something great”(Grivas, C et al, pg. 22). Human Resources/Benefits is about preparing for new hires, open enrollment and the various concerns during the course of a year that our employees may encounter.

Course Related Tools to use on Team

As a leader, it is my responsibility to have the initial plan of what I need for the team to think about, elaborate and to clarify, and promote other ideas to accommodate our employees. I want them to own want we the company want for our employees to experience. The team is expected to provide new innovative ideas to ensure that employees are educated and comfortable with the information that is provided to them regarding HR/Benefits. I’m not here as their leader to “…set standards of behavior or expectations of performance and then violate them”(Zenger, J., et al 2009). That is not being a leader or team player. I want my team to elevate and be promoted, so holding them back is not what I want for them. This team is ready to work with each other, I recommended that the team select a captain so that when I am in other meetings the captain will be able to keep me updated. This provides the team to collaborate and “clarifying the problem, generating ideas, developing solutions and implementing plans” (Puccio, G. et al. slide #8).

Techniques to Filter/Evaluate ideas

As the group is talking and sharing the various ideas there are two ways to do it. The first is the process of figuring out a concrete resolution, which is convergent thinking. The other is divergent thinking that this team promotes because of their creative thinking. At the end of this project no one has a complain because we all contribute and that project is 5% away of being completed. Because of the innovative ideas that were shared when the official presentation is presented to the executive group it will be received.

References

Grivas, C., & Puccio, G.J. (2012). The innovative team: Unleashing creative potential for breakthrough results (pp. 13-241).

Zenger J. & Folkman, J. (2009) Ten Fatal Flaws that Derail Leaders. Harvard Business Review. 87 (6), 18

Puccio, G. J., Murdock, M.C. & Mance, M. Creative Leadership: Skills that Drive Change. SanDiego CA: Sage.

2nd person to respond to:

How You Would Bring a Team Together and Lead Them to Start Such an Initiative

The way I would bring a team together and lead them to start this initiative of creating a customer loyalty program is by making sure I have the right people. I want to make sure that I have qualified people who have the necessary skills to complete each task before them and that I have the right amount of people on the team. In addition, I could establish the right environment with the right vision to help determine the right process that should be taken from the team. Some of the things that should be prevented in trying to lead a team is having “a lack of energy, lack of clear vision, lacks the need for promoting collaboration, resists new ideas, never can learn from mistakes, lack interpersonal skills, and fails to develop others” (Amabile and Steven, 2012, p. 1). Overall, as the leader I want to make sure that I present the right leadership approach by utilizing effective communication skills, enable risk tolerance, build efficient problem-solving skills, and develop a positive learning environment for my team to help enhance them and their creative abilities. Such skills as these are needed to help build creativity from the beginning.

Course Related Tools to use on Team

In week two of our course, our focus was on the improvement of creative teams and creative conflicts. I made reference on how teams can improve their creative styles and learn how to retain them. McNeil (2020) says “I believe the best way for the group to improve the process of completing their project is by first establishing who the group leader is, second embrace the differences among the group by using it as an advantage, and third utilize the SMART goals outline” (McNeil, 2020). In addition, design thinking can be another tool used on the team to help generate ideas and implement a successful plan. Brown (2008) says that design thinking “is a discipline that uses the designer’s sensibility and methods to match people’s needs with what is technologically feasible and what a viable business strategy can convert into customer value and market opportunity” (Brown, 2008, p. 2). This allows the team to focus on the issues, risks, and opportunities that help the implementation of various creative ideas for their customer loyalty program plan.

Techniques to Filter/Evaluate ideas

The building up of two techniques in particular can help guide the enhancement of the team by using the principles of convergent thinking and divergent thinking. The principles for convergent thinking are to “apply affirmative judgment, keep novelty alive, stay focused, and check your objectives” (Puccio, Mance, Switalski, and Reali, 2012, p. 10). Divergent thinking requires making connections and being a fluent thinker to be able to innovate many different ideas (Puccio, Mance, Switalski, and Reali, 2012). “These principles are interrelated; they work together to improve our abilities to keep our mind open and explore a wide array of possibilities from multiple perspectives” (Puccio, Mance, Switalski, and Reali, 2012, p. 3). With these principles, I am certain that any team will be able to leave their comfort zones and begin to generate potential ideas. For example, if I wanted my team to plan unique offers in exchange for reward points as part of my customer loyalty program, we would have to come up with ideas that we would have to select from on offers that are different from our competitors, help us stand out, and please our customers. Our focus is our customers which is also our motivation. Motivation is needed for creativity.

APA References

Amabile, T., & Steven, K. (2012). How leaders kill meaning at work. McKinsey Quarterly, (1), 124–131.

Brown, T. (2008, June). Design thinking. Harvard Business Review, 86(6), 84–92.

McNeil, D. (2020). Discussion: Creative Teams and Creative Conflicts for WMBA6020. Unpublished manuscript, Walden University.

Puccio, G. J., Mance, M., Switalski, L. B., & Reali, P. D. (2012). Principles for divergent and convergent thinking: Becoming a better creative thinker. In Creativity Rising: Creative thinking and creative problem solving in the 21st century (pp. 51–70). Buffalo, NY: ICSC Press.