In my most recent post I discussed how leaders can create an environment where their team feels safe to engage in creative thinking.
Today I want to describe processes you can use to encourage reflection and learning. Build these processes into your usual way of working and you will foster a work environment where new ideas and perspectives are welcome and failure is recognised as an essential part of the learning process.
What is a process?
Our Google dictionary defines a process as,
a series of actions or steps taken in order to achieve a particular end.
A dry but useful starting point for a discourse on processes.
So why do we need processes?
In organisations we create repeatable processes so we can work more efficiently. Work is often grouped by function with different teams managing different parts of the process within that function. Because of interdependencies, it’s important to have processes which are efficient, transparent, encourage collaboration and have clear points of accountability.
If you lead a team, you’ll develop a way to plan and track work or you may be required to use systems and processes already created in your organisation. Processes influence the way that work is done and influence peoples inclination to engage in creative thinking. For example, creative thinking needs time and sometimes permission.
Interactions
Work processes influence if and when employees interact with each other, with prompts for creativity often coming from interactions within the group and not just from a creatively inclined individual (Hargadon and Bechky,2006). Research reveals that interactions are more effective when all group members are focussed on the same task (Metiu & Rothbard, 2013). When your team gathers together, you have the opportunity to use a learning rich process. For example, end of project reviews or After-Action Reviews (AAR) as they are called in the military, are great processes for encouraging reflection, learning and thinking differently. This is how they work.
At the end of a project or mission, get everyone in the room (preferably), or online and ask them to think about these questions.
- What went well?
- What were the challenges we faced?
- What should we do differently next time?
Give everyone the opportunity to provide their answers, in the same time allocation and then document responses on a whiteboard. If someone supports comments made already, tick the item listed on the whiteboard and move the discussion on.
If a project has gone badly, some may be motivated to not discuss what happened openly and to move on to the next project. This happens too often in organisations and represents a lost opportunity which reinforces a low risk culture. Experimentation and failure is a normal part of work and if we build these types of reviews into our processes then it becomes normal to engage in reflection with failure accepted as normal part of the learning process.
When it comes to the question around how we could do things differently, you have the opportunity to invite everyone to thing expansively and creatively. There are a range of questions you could ask or tools that you could use here, but of most importance is you giving the team permission.
Takeaways
Create or adapt the processes in your team to provide time for reflection and the capturing of learning.
At the end of a project: Ask three questions: What went well? What didn’t go as well? What should we do differently next time? Capture this information, store it somewhere accessible for all and refer to it when you’re undertaking a similar project or as a point of reference in your problem solving and decision-making processes.
Review the types of interactions your team members have with each other – and with other teams remembering that constant interaction with diverse others supports creativity.
References
Metiu, A., & Rothbard, N. P. 2013. Task bubbles, artifacts, shared emotion, and mutual focus of attention: A comparative study of the microprocesses of group engagement. Organization Science, 24(2): 455-475.
Wilson, B.A. & Stanley, T. 2018. Creativity Cycling: Help your team solve complex problems with creative tools by Barbara Wilson and Tracy Stanley
Photo image from @campaign_creators on @unsplash