While we are all more isolated than we would like to be these days, we need to keep jumping on the phone or video conferencing to solve problems and generate creativity with our colleagues. Here’s why.
In our workshops we always open up with a parlor game called Boggle. Boggle features a square jumble of letters we put up for everyone to see. Each person individually has five minutes to write down as many words that can be formed by connecting the letters in various ways . . . up, down, sideways, diagonal etc.
After five minutes we go around the room. The first person reads all the words that popped out to her – say ten – everybody crosses those words off their lists. Then, we go to the next person and ask if he can add any more – usually another seven to ten. Then, the third person adds another five or six and so on.
Bottom line, by the time we poll everyone, no one person has identified more than ten to fifteen words, but collectively, as a team, they usually identify forty to fifty.
So, what just happened here?
Every person in the room perceives the board differently. Everyone’s brain processes differently. Each person is limited individually relative to intellectual and creative horsepower but, when working with a team, can generate many more ideas and solutions as a group.
Today’s situation can lull us into thinking we can work alone. That may be true to some extent, but we need collaborators to bring out the very best in us. Use the technology and by all means keep meeting and keep working together out there. We are much, MUCH more powerful as members of a team!
Terrific!