Boosting IT Team Performance by Fostering Intuition, Curiosity and Creativity
Have you ever had an immediate reaction to someone you just met? Perhaps it was a new business colleague and, for no reason at all, you simply didn’t trust them? You did not like them despite everybody singing that person’s praises? Fast-forward to learn that the person has been fired for stealing other people’s ideas.
Or maybe you knew something was going to happen, without having to think about it? For many years my partner and I ran a scuba diving business on the side. One day, while preparing for an open-water checkout dive in Jeddah, I suddenly knew we should not enter the water. The sun was shining, the boat was bobbing gently on the waves, and everyone was laughing and chatting excitedly – yet I halted the dive.
About five minutes later, the boat was surrounded by dozens of grey-tipped reef shark.
Far more aggressive than the “timid” black-tipped reef shark, this shark shiver sent shivers down my spine. If we had entered the water, we could have been attacked.
My dad, who ran a very successful company, was abysmal when it came to math, yet he could look at a budget and immediately, intuitively, spot numbers that were not correct.
Henry Ford intuitively knew he needed to raise employee wages; doubling salaries, resulted in lower turnover and a two-fold production increase within a year. CEO Travis Kalanick introduced Uber’s surge pricing based on gut feeling, with benefits to drivers and the corporate bottom line.
Intuition, which according to multiple dictionaries, is “the ability to understand something immediately without the use of conscious reasoning”, was at play in each of these situations. Just as it is in many “unexpected” business decisions that have led to widespread industry change.
I believe that this ability to immediately discern what is going on, is more than heuristics. When you understand the ins and outs of your industry, stay on top of macro environmental and consumer trends, and thoroughly understand your company’s capability vis-à-vis those of the competition, then your subconscious can, indeed, make these kinds of immediate assessments. It’s important to listen to your “inner knower” when it tells you to reconsider, or take more time to consider important decisions.
Alan Turing, the accredited father of Artificial Intelligence, believed that this type of intuition was key to invention.
This type of intuition is, in many ways, data-driven. Although research, analytical skills and the ability to assess the importance of data-based findings are vital, intuition often plays a crucial role in invention and innovative decisions.
As you will see from the 2 -3 minutes or so it will take you to finish reading this blog post, leaders of highly-functioning teams – teams that uncover effective, new ways of doing things…
– Encourage people to listen to their guts as a starting point,
– Foster curiousity,
– Applaud creativity, and
– Reward perseverance.
How can you cultivate an environment in which these skills flourish?
– Practice quick decision making
The more your team is encouraged to make decisions quickly, the better everyone will become at tapping into their “inner knower”. Get individuals to make a decision based on their gut feel, and then have them do the fact-checking/digging it would normally take for them to come up with a recommendation – and then compare the conclusions reached. You will all likely be surprised at the outcomes.
Over time – and in less time than you might imagine – your team will become increasingly adept at making the right decision in short amounts of time. They will have learned to leverage their intuition.
– Delegate more.
Multiple studies show that when team members are given more autonomy, they become better at problem-solving, freeing up time to focus on ideas that can lead to innovation. When you get your direct reports to shoulder more and more of the day-to-day load, you, too, will have more time to spend assessing what’s going on in your business/organisation, enabling you to make better strategic decisions.
You will still need to check critical work, of course (without micro-managing), but your team will work more effectively overall.
– Practice the “5 WHYs” approach when problem-solving
When faced with a challenge, encourage your team to ask why something happened sufficient times that they can determine the root cause of the problem at hand.
The more often they do this, the better understanding your team members will have of your operation overall, as well as the IT solutions and other tools you use to grow the business and keep the organisation functioning on a daily basis. This will increase their intuition abilities.
– Harness the power of curiosity
Curiosity is critical to innovation in every human endeavour. Encourage your team members to spend 5 – 10 minutes investigating something/anything related to IT, to your industry, your organisation, your stakeholders, etc. Get them to ask themselves, “I wonder why…” as they sleuth.
Set aside a specific time each week to bring your team together, keeping it informal, to share what they have learned. Ask them how they feel this information might impact the industry in general, or your organisation in particular. It is important to use the word “feel”, or your team members will likely share what they think is the right answer, rather than come up with something creative.
– Use synectics sessions to generate new ideas
Building on point #4… As we mentioned in an earlier newsletter, when leading your team discussion, but people know that all ideas are welcome. That nothing is too crazy to be considered. When leading the sessions, I often find that great ideas are often born from the germ of “crazy”. Make sure you acknowledge the work and the “cool ideas”. Where possible, recognize and reward participation as appropriate.
As you discuss these ideas, start by encouraging divergent thinking. Gradually get people to come together (convergent thinking) to start shaping new approaches. The sessions will definitely not bear fruit every time, but your overall harvest will more than make up for the time you spend on this activity.
– Reward perseverance.
This one speaks for itself.
– Focus and avoid being distracted by bright, shiny objects.
When we were kids – and this may still apply to some adults, too – we often wanted a new toy, even if our current one was still in great condition. Even if we loved our old ones. As new technological advances are made, the natural inclination is to check it out. Spending a little time learning about the newest, cool, shiny thing is fine – but problems arise when resources are diverted for in-depth exploration of the “new toy”.
It can cause uncertainty within the organisation or IT department, if well-planned initiatives are paused to pursue the latest and greatest new idea. Sadly, it’s often senior team members who precipitate down-the-rabbit-hole dashing. Someone goes to a conference, reads something in a respected business publication, or hears a podcast in which a new concept is discussed and, almost overnight, the focus can shift away from previously prioritized plans to the latest and greatest new, shiny object.
The impact on morale and productivity can be devastating. Instead, get your team to focus on the target – and on why these have been set as priority goals – and train them to avoid distractions.
Curiosity, intuition, focus and persistence make a powerful combination that breeds success.
As you look to develop the skills within your team, please let us know if you’d like help implementing any of these suggestions – we have done it effectively with dozens and dozens of firms over the years.
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