As a leader it would be great to have all the answers, all the good ideas, all the techniques to get everything done perfectly every time. Guess what, it's not possible. We need to invite others into help us out, to work though and with them... And that brings me to Exploring Ideas
This process can be used quickly and consistently to tap into the minds of those around you - to leverage the collective wisdom of your team. By actively asking for input, insights, and reactions, you can deal with indifference, engage your people at a much deeper more engaging level, and built a stronger connection to each other and the organization. The key actions to explore and generate ideas and suggestions are below with a few notes:
Refer to the topic and purpose
Make sure people know what you're trying to accomplish, the kind of participation you want and how the ideas generated will be used. Context is king!
Invite suggestions
Be encouraging of others' ideas (Leaders speak last), use your curiosity to go deeper with suggestion, use techniques like brain writing to bring out the most ideas - remember you aren't evaluating yet - just generating ideas!
Offer suggestions
It is likely that all the ideas you capture above will spark your own thinking. Feel free to add your own ideas - when all the team have stopped adding new ideas.
Build on the ideas of others
Ask your team to add or takeaway from ideas or even combine them. Encourage them to be playful experiment and see where that takes your ideation
Recap agreements and next steps
Be sure to review the process with the group, thank them for their contributions (this is a good point to do some recognition (june 5th) ) and to explain / share next steps.
Your team is a great resource of ideas and insights - use them!
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