Breakdown Technique

Talking about creativity in the workplace, in this post, I would like to share with you a creative technique called a meeting [Breakdown Technique], in a form of an example that will help you in problem solving.

This technique will allow you to to generate questions by breaking the problem itself down into words that would lead to some creative question/ideas that can be taken into consideration in the problem solving itself by providing steps that could be considered as a possible data for analysis for a detailed problem solving plan or an action plan. If you have more knowledge about the industry, the organizational unit, you could actually generate a detailed action plan with this technique! 

Question: The organization I work for has a large number of members nearing retirement.  How can I retain the institutional knowledge these members possess prior to their leaving?

Illustration of the "Breakdown Technique'

How      

How has it been managed in the past? What were the lessons learned from the past? Have you consulted others who have managed a similar process? Is there currently a job shadowing practice being used? If not. - Have you developed any job shadowing or handover plans?

Can       

Can this process be managed easy if it is well planned or it will be difficult? What are the constraints that you and your team see that might make it difficult? 

I              

Why 'I'? Have you tried to share this with your team? Perhaps engaging both retiring and new staff in the process of transfer of knowledge will bring new ideas and suggestions that would work better because it’s coming from both parties involved in the process?

Retain  

What type of institutional knowledge exactly would you like to retain? Have you tried determining it by area/sector/department (scanning and sorting)?

Institutional knowledge               

What is considered institutional knowledge in your organizational unit? What institutional knowledge are you looking at and at what level? Do all the employees who are retiring possess the same level of institutional knowledge?

These members              

How many members will be retiring? What level jobs are they holding?

Possess               

Do all the retiring employees possess the same level of institutional knowledge, or only bits and pieces of it strictly related to their jobs? 

Did you find it helpful? Look forward to your comments.

Strategic Planning Versus Strategic Intent

Do you agree with Mintzberg's assertion that strategic planning can actually hamper an organization? Do you think that an organization can begin to operate with strategic intent without having experienced all of the phases of strategic planning?

Strategic planning can be an obstacle for some organizations, in some socio-economic environments and I think Mintzberg's view offers the “Level-ZERO” of strategic thinking and is ultimate/universal, flexible and evolutionary level in Strategic Management. It can be very useful in environments that Strategic Planning may be a redundant and obsolete process for the mentioned reasons.

Some organizations use this model in countries where market is challenging, unpredictable and unstable or contrary to their vision and mission.

Though this level can be an alternative intermediary option while organization needs time to transit from one level to another or sleep on its decision which level is needed, such a theory can be more useful for new organizations that are exploring new areas, ideas and products where the strategic planning can be a premature process while the firm is in its “sniffing” phase. And yes, therefore, I do think that an organization can begin to operate with strategic intent without having experienced all of the phases/levels of strategic planning as the uncertainties are significant or the organization plans to grow rapidly and become an industry leader in a short time.

Ideal team and what it would take for you to develop that team?

I think that a team that collaboratively, honestly, sportively, and openly work together towards a common goal (objective) in a coordinated way, the members of which are giving their best and are able to produce results, support, trust and be accountable to each other would make an ideal team for me.

While there are many theories and practices in developing an ideal team, in my opinion these are series of actions taken in right consequence that would address gaps based on maturity/development  level of the team  as broken down and presented in both Three-wave pattern and Tuckman’s model. E.g. at the stage of Taking Hold (from Three-Wave Pattern) and Stage 1 –Forming (from Tuckman’s model) I would take the following actions:

• Clarify objectives and task of each team member
• Make the mission the motto of the team
• To have a clear direction, see the future and beware of the next steps in formation/performance of the team
• Take initiative and introduce exercises that will strengthen the trust among team members, allow them to learn about each other more and increase the level of commitment 
• Teambuilding exercises would be very beneficial for this stage 
• Emphasize small group projects that the team members familiarize working with each other 
• Establishes norms, rules, performance expectations, indicators and monitoring tools 
• The leader should to absorb, analyze, come up with quick fixes and think of using the mentioned analysis/ lessons learned as an information to shift the next stage of three-waive pattern in a more informed way 
• The leadership style of the team leader is acceptable to be directive

E.g. My team is currently transitioning from Stage 2 – Storming to Stage 3 – Norming; According to the Three-Wave Pattern my leadership style is Stage 2: Immersion transitioning to Stage 3: Reshaping; from the five most common performance gaps the most important existing ones that need to be addressed are: Ability to delegate tasks, and the ability to communicate clearly and effectively, Ability to clearly define the roles of team member. The Table 1 nested below flashes out my plan on what strategy to use and how to address the gaps.

I found the Three-Wave Pattern not only informing my approach to addressing performance gaps, possible outcomes, next steps, leadership style but also a tool that shapes the stages of development of the teams, members and leaders and their behaviors at each stage by keeping the possible expectations clear relevant to each stage.

For my team and industry, as demonstrated in the table below, the Team Culture, Gap Analysis, Adult Learning, Leading Through Teaching, Creating Team Synergy, Task and Relationship-Focused Processes are very dynamic tools and techniques that play significant role in team development and success at any stage of team development as the team members, leadership, functions and the objectives change all the time in my industry.

I have came up with a matrix that structures the analysis above.

Creativity in The Workplace

A while ago, someone asked me whether there an optimal level of creativity for a person to have? And is it possible to be 'too creative'? Is it true that creative people can be difficult to manage?

I tend to think that it depends on the industry, workplace and organizational setup in determination of the limits of creativity. In most of the organizations creativity is to bring positive, viable, feasible and progressive results/outcomes but these are not the only results that creativity can bring.

Creativity also can lead to negative, bad experimental results and therefore each organization and its business should guide such processes and have fairly structured framework for creative solution analysis, testing and application.

I believe that if it is the expectation of the organization from some individuals/departments/units to come up with creative ideas and convert them into viable solutions, there should be no limit to creativity and it should not be considered 'too much'. 'Too' is a comparative term and unless you qualify and quantify creativity in a particular sector of an industry, I do not think it is would be applicable.  'Too creative' also may not be applicable to use for specific positions/jobs/departments in organizations that require creative minds to come with creative solutions to achieve better results.

In my opinion creative individuals should have the following characteristics: independent, expressive passionate and perhaps operating beyond organizational norms. There is also the possibility of wide dialog and debates, especially when a leader rejects some ideas from creative individuals and it can be difficult for some leaders to say 'No'. Some leaders might not like question 'What if…' that creative individuals should often ask.  Good leaders should know how to manage creative individuals without discouragement and coming in the way of generating new ideas. The leaders should be able to support and create right environment for creative individuals to come up with feasible solutions, monitor the process and make rewarding.

Nonetheless, to say difficult to manage sounds somewhat subjective and would depend on experience and personality of the leader and the creative individual.

Welcome Note From The Author

My Future Readers!

This blog is a great reading and educative material presented in short blog posts and aims to help busy professionals working in the related field to understand the components of leadership, how those really work in organizations, make comparisons with their organizations in a very creative way. The author of this blog is a flexible, dynamic and adaptive leader who looks into problem solving and solution finding in a creative way.

You will also find in the posts filtered news, opinions and theories by experts in the area of leadership in organizations, experience, facts and thoughts around executive decision making, creative thinking and leading with creativity, strategic thinking and planning, challenges of current leaders and techniques to overcome those, coaching and mentoring, negotiations and lots more.

The Author