Brainstorm Techniques to Elevate Team Creativity

“How should we fix this problem?” is a question that has been asked time and again in the boardroom, around the lunch table and likely on your last Zoom call at work. In this scenario, some may look to the most experienced person in the room or on the call to decide. Sometimes we invite the group to share feedback on what was done the last time. Instead of using one of these common solutions, try inviting one of these brainstorming techniques to your next meeting to elevate team creativity.

Start with a word game.

Free association is the process of relaying the first word that comes to mind based upon another word or image. During the process, don’t stick to a specific structure; rather let new words generate organically from the group at random. This exercise taps into your subconscious and opens the door to new ideas or considerations that brainstormers would have previously kept under wraps. Identify a member of the team to take notes, set a timer and go!

Reframe the question.

Another technique involves restating the original question in ten different ways to frame the problem in a new way. For example, you may start with the inquiry, “How can we increase our client service rates?” Your team can then rally to come up with related questions such as:

• What does exceptional client service look like at our company?
• What does exceptional client service mean to our clients?
• How would we know we were delivering exceptional client service?

This simple reframing can help generate new ideas and may outline a better question for the group to answer.

Invite “outsiders” to the table.

What is mundane to you may be novel to someone else. That’s why it pays to invite a special guest to your next brainstorm session. Invite colleagues who work in different functions; they can add new information to the story or look at the problem from a different point of view. Invite individuals from other companies altogether; you can ask them to participate in your brainstorm or invite them to present on a topic prior to your team attacking a problem. A new perspective goes a long way in opening creative pathways. And if you can’t find someone available for that meeting, bring an inspirational Ted Talk to kick off the session.

In summary, doing the same thing and expecting different results will unlikely lead to amazing results. Instead, try a new tactic. Even something as basic as hosting the meeting in a new location or asking attendees to step outside can get creative juices flowing.

 

First-Time Manager Faux Pas

Just like a bad Yelp review, most employees can recall a boss (or two) that they would give a low management rating. Maybe it was the boss who didn’t respect their time outside of the office or the one who asked for results with an unreasonably short deadline. Or maybe it was the supervisor who didn’t take the time to get to know their new direct report. Regardless of the reason, even the best supervisors will make mistakes or decisions that their employees don’t support. Managers are human too!

The leap from individual contributor to manager is a big one and deserves thoughtful preparation. New managers want to avoid these common manager faux pas when taking the leap to leadership.

Not acknowledging a change in relationship with peers. Let’s first acknowledge that being promoted to manage a team of your peers is tough to begin with. One day, you’re making plans for after work happy hour, the next day you’re giving feedback on their performance. It’s incredibly important to discuss this relationship change with each member of your new team. Tell them what may be different now that you are their manager. For example, you may need to limit your lunch dates with your “bestie” to avoid complaints of favoritism. Open the floor to their concerns or questions as well; avoiding this topic may lead to resentment.

Focusing on “doing” instead of leading. Some employees moving into management can’t seem to keep their hands out of the day-to-day. Instead of providing guidance or removing obstacles from the path of their team, they micromanage or take parts of the work back to complete. Often, they fall back into execution because it’s what they did best in their prior role. In some cases, a star salesperson or excellent analyst may find in due time that they prefer being in the independent contributor role to managing. This is okay! It’s good to know yourself and your preferences.

Making drastic changes early in the transition. A big management blunder occurs when a leader comes into a new role and immediately trashes existing ideas, processes, and roadmaps with the intent of starting from scratch. It’s key to observe and listen to feedback from those around you prior to making changes. There is a story behind every decision, and what at first glance may look like a poor solution, may in fact make a lot of sense when you ask those around you and investigate further. This is a hard one as new managers may feel the need to prove their competency early on. Hold back! This restraint is a sign of your maturity as a leader.

New supervisors can avoid some common gaffes if they avoid the rookie mistakes above. Managing other people is hard; don’t let anyone tell you otherwise! It’s important for managers to build trust by showing vulnerability with a new team. A manager willing to admit they make mistakes and don’t know everything will encourage strong relationships with their employees.

Take Ten: The 50-Minute Meeting

The clock on the computer screen blinks 3:00 p.m. and it dawns on you that you haven’t eaten your first (or second!) meal of the day. Nor have you stood up from your desk to stretch your legs or used the restroom. Your back feels tight and you have the early stages of a raging migraine. The diagnosis? Meeting fatigue. You had a calendar full of back-to-back meetings with zero time for yourself and are starting to feel the repercussions. Research shows that employees’ stress levels mount as they bounce from meeting to meeting without a break, even when working from home. The solution? It could be as simple as cutting ten minutes from your hour-long meeting.

Microsoft’s Human Factors Lab recently conducted an experiment to investigate the toll continuous meetings take on our physical and mental health. They looked specifically at the brain’s reaction to a full day of meetings. Beta waves, the brain activity associated with stress, increased when study participants were shuttled from meeting to meeting without a meaningful break. It is also key to know that the actual transition from each meeting (dialing in to a new call or gathering your notes to walk to a new location) tended to add to their stress levels as well. Without a chance for a real break, your stress levels only increase as a meeting-filled day goes on. You may be on overload by the time you are called on to deal with an unexpected situation and overreact because of this “trigger stacking.”

The good news? When participants were given just ten minutes of down time to rest or meditate, their beta waves decreased. This reset time allowed them to be more present and engaged in their next meeting. So, the real question is, do you want your meeting participants to be alert and ready to innovate? Or are you okay with participants who are too stressed to focus?

While scientists are tackling the long-term solution, a good step in the right direction is to limit the meeting length at your organization (or at least on your calendar) to allow for rest breaks. Introducing this idea at work can start with little fanfare – model the behavior first. Start scheduling your meetings to start ten minutes after the hour or plan for an early departure. Communicate the reason for this adjustment and what you plan to do with the time: “Our meeting is going to run 50 minutes, so we all have a chance to rest and refocus before our next commitment. I plan to take my dog outside for a few minutes and come back ready to go!”

The Pomodoro Technique: Can You Find More Time with Tomatoes?

Who holds the key to time management? Is it your partner who diligently uses a paper planner to chart out all meetings in pencil? Or your boss who devotes the last hour of their day to track and organize projects? Or maybe it’s you? You fire up your laptop hours before your peers so you can experience some of that sweet uninterrupted prime time where you blast through hours of work. Corporate America has revisited the riddle of proper time management for years, resulting in a slew of potential solutions to rehabilitate your calendar quandary. There are models, methods, and technologies galore! One of those methods to consider in the quest for time management transcendentalism is the Pomodoro technique. This method may be a good solution for employees looking to find more focus in their workday.

The Italian productivity advocate Francesco Cirillo invented the Pomodoro Technique. The first part of the name, pomodoro, is the Italian word for tomato; Francesco used a timer in the shape of this ruby red vegetable (or fruit, depending on who you ask!) to track his time and keep him on task.

There are five simple steps, and just like Francesco, you only need a timer (a phone timer will work just fine) to start.

• Identify your list of action items/tasks for the day
• Set a timer for 25 minutes (a “pomodoro”)
• Work on one focused task until the timer sounds
• Take a five-minute break to stand up, rest, etc.
• Repeat on a new task, tracking how many “pomodoros” it took you to complete each task

Though the guidelines are simple, the rules are stricter. First, no cheating! You may be curious about an email that pinged your inbox, or want to check the weather, but you must wait until your five-minute break. Second, you must track how many “pomodoros” it takes for you to complete each task. This part of the process refines your ability to estimate future assignments. And third, you can’t keep working even if you really, really want to and can‘t cut the time short, either. The process relies on dedicated work time mixed with consistent breaks to free up your thoughts. In fact, the Pomodoro Technique requires that you take a larger break after completing three or four “pomodoros.”

Fans of the method enjoy the dedicated deep thought time and like that they can clearly see their accomplishments, or “pomodoros,” at the end of the day. Certain jobs lend themselves nicely to this technique. For example, coders using an agile framework may already be comfortable estimating their time and completing focused tasks. On a similar note, the work of writers and website designers is also a potentially good match because the final work product is easily diced into smaller subtasks. On the other hand, the Pomodoro Technique may be more difficult to implement for client-facing roles or those that require a meeting-heavy schedule. Workers that don’t control their schedule may have trouble implementing this strategy since they would be regularly pulled from their work sprints.

Curious? Try it out! Take a week to pilot and see if adding this type of structure helps you stay focused.

Managers have a slew of responsibilities related to supervising employee productivity and overseeing business operations. But it doesn’t stop there. Managers are also tasked with being knowledgeable in a handful of policies and procedures to support their employees. For example, a manager without basic knowledge of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) may unknowingly provide inaccurate information to employees. It is easier than you think to make a mistake like this when dealing with a complicated policy. If managers know the basics of FMLA interpretation at their organization, they are better prepared to support employees and involve Human Resources at the right time. Identifying the answers to these questions will set the groundwork for a manager FMLA primer.

What is FMLA?

On a broad level, FMLA offers employees meeting specific family and medical reasons up to 12 weeks of leave with job protection and continued access to healthcare within a 12-month period. “Job protection” means eligible employees are guaranteed to return to their same job or a similar role after their leave. This point is key as employees may not realize why FMLA is important to job security.

Are our employees covered under FMLA?

This question speaks to the fact that not all FMLA plans or policies are created equally. The Department of Labor offers guidelines to determine employer and employee eligibility for the federal program on its website. Requirements include conditions such as number of employees within a geographic area, hours worked for the employer, and qualifying conditions such as birth of a child or caring for a sick family member. Some employers who do not meet the criteria may implement a policy to support an “employee-first” culture.

Since coverage may vary by employee and FMLA notification guidelines are strict, it is important to notify HR if an employee is taking time off that may be considered FMLA-eligible. FMLA leave cannot be backdated so it is better to be safe than sorry!

Are our employees paid while on FMLA?

This is where it gets complicated! The federal program is unpaid. However, some states or districts have implemented paid family and medical leave programs with varying rules and time periods. As of February 2021, this included California, New Jersey, Rhode Island, New York, Washington, the District of Columbia, and Massachusetts.

Workers in states that do not have paid FMLA leave may often use other types of paid time off during their protected leave. For example, workers may be able to apply for short-term disability or use sick or vacation time, if available, to supplement their income during this time.

 

The Department of Labor continues to expand the FMLA policy; most recently, it was amended with the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) to grant emergency FMLA leave for family members impacted by the coronavirus (COVID-19). A manager educated in FMLA basics is more prepared to support the many needs of employees both in and out of the office. In addition, ongoing FMLA manager training helps the company stay in compliance with federal mandates.

The first day returning to the office after a 14-month hiatus may feel like the first day of school. You don a new outfit (your sweats don’t seem office appropriate!), grab your packed lunch (not sure what restaurants will be open), and jump in your car early to make that 8:30 a.m. meeting in the office. Under the surface of your well-prepared appearance, you are a jumble of nerves. You have had a hard time sleeping since the company announced that the office was reopening. Your heart beats fast when you think about this change. You try to brush off these thoughts, but they sneak back into your worry queue at the most inopportune times. The feelings are real! A Harvard Business School study reported that 80% of remote workers don’t want to return to the office full time. Human Resource practitioners and managers should prepare for a range of employee feelings about returning to the office. Encouraging open dialogue and flexibility will support a successful transition.

Management will observe a variety of responses to a call for employees to return to the workplace: excitement, fear, stress, and anticipation. For example, new employees who have not met colleagues face-to-face may be enthusiastic about “starting over” in person. Relationships are essential to career development and those new to the organization may be looking to cement them in person. On the other hand, many individuals learned they preferred a virtual work environment. Reasons for this home-based preference include more flexibility, increased time with family and friends, and a higher degree of concentration without office interruptions.

The first thing leaders in the workplace can do is encourage dialogue with employees about this change. These may be tough and somewhat uncomfortable conversations for employees to initiate. “No news is good news” is not an appropriate mantra for this transition. Avoiding this topic with your direct reports is an invitation for them to seek counsel elsewhere. Instead, ask employees what is on their minds. The coronavirus pandemic is a unique scenario for all, and managers would be wise to listen to questions and concerns. A good manager will advocate for employees and be reasonable when asked for manageable exceptions.

Furthermore, it is important to understand your company’s stance on returning to the office. Many companies have changed policies in response to the past year. For example, some companies are offering full time remote work as a permanent option moving forward, an exciting proposition for employees who found this arrangement simpatico with their lifestyle. On the other extreme, some organizations are taking a hard stance, requiring all employees to return to work full time in the office. Regardless of your company’s position, be prepared to share information about safety protocols.

There is no doubt that change is hard – even welcome changes that may bring employees closer to the normalcy of years past. Remember that you may feel differently than your staff. Be patient with them as they process dealing with another change in a seemingly endless stream of unknowns.

Critics of unlimited paid time off (PTO) policies often believe this flexible approach will create havoc across the company; employees will take advantage of this generous benefit and it will be difficult to get work completed as a result. The research suggests otherwise. The results of a study conducted by Namely showed employees with discretionary vacation end up taking less time on average than those with a traditional policy. This hesitancy may be a byproduct of the uncertainty around what is a “fair” number of days to take without seeming overzealous. Or the low usage may stem from time off being less valued in an “always on” culture where you are expected to respond quickly and jump on client calls no matter the day of the week. In short, employees tend to not be the ones upsetting the vacation apple cart. Companies considering a change to this unlimited approach should look at two key resources to determine if they are prepared to support a change of this caliber: the time off policy and employee performance goals.

An “unlimited” PTO benefit works best when guidelines, instructions and restrictions are in place ahead of time. As a best practice, companies should outline details of the policy in writing. A well-defined policy will include details such as coordination of benefits between related policies, including short-term and long-term disability. It will also include instructions on what criteria must be met for an employee’s time off request to be approved. Will requests be denied if multiple employees ask for time off on the same day as a client event or deliverable? How much advance notice is needed for time off requests to be considered? And most important, what specific performance targets must be met?