Using Unconventional Means to Build Innovation Capacity in Teams

 
 

Using Unconventional Means to Build Innovation Capacity in Teams

From fourth graders to corporates, roughly 2,500 participants have benefitted from SHiFT – a location inspired program that uses the design process to create innovations. The same unique elements that ignite innovation at SHiFT can build greater creativity in your teams.

February 16, 2022

Owen Foster, the Director of Innovations at UTC Honors College, assures us that SHiFT is not a ropes course. While it began as a camp for young designers, SHiFT quickly evolved into an immersive outdoor education platform that builds teams and skills for the future of business, technology, and design.

SHiFT specializes in low-tech events focused primarily around team building through workshops and community projects. The program also helps participants identify and amplify their unique skills, learn inclusion, create greater growth mindsets, and understand the power of the design thinking.

From design students and professional writers to nuclear physicists and Fortune 100 executives, everyone needs to be challenged to be better problem solvers. In this webinar, we hear from Owen Foster on the power of immersive experiences to ignite innovation capacity in teams.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

  1. Level the playing field — The foundational step to building innovation capacity is making sure everyone has a seat at the table. In our day and age, the reality is no one has a unique skill set—it’s your skill set alongside your lived experience that makes you valuable. Recognize that everyone on your team has strengths to tap regardless of their discipline or background. Take a note from SHiFT’s book and engage your team in an immersive, out-of-the-box experience that humanizes participants and draws them out of their comfort zones for greater impact.

  2. Build camaraderie — SHiFT intentionally creates vague challenges that do not engage one person’s skill set over another’s. Instead, their challenges are designed to allow everyone to speak up and find their own voices. When your team feels like they belong to the conversation, everyone will begin to more deeply appreciate each other’s individual voices and contributions. This sense of belonging fosters ownership which is key to building camaraderie. Not sure where to start? Have your team really introduce who they are, and not their résumés, to kickstart camaraderie.

  3. Let your team lead — In this new era of leadership, leaders often need to stop, be observant, and take a back seat in order to build, amplify, or increase your team’s creativity. Inspiring creativity in your team may be as simple as realizing that they already have everything they need to succeed. If they don’t have something, we live in a world where virtual tools are readily accessible. The bottom line: be conscious of the talents that each person brings to the table to get the job done—they’re often all we need. A tangible way to let your team lead is letting them have ownership over how you communicate with them, not vice versa.

  4. Always raise the bar — Never stop raising the bar for your team. The more your team feels like they’re accomplishing, the more they will want to work. Not only will they want to accomplish more with every met goal, they will want to be greater at what they do. Once your team starts to feel comfortable with their accomplishments, challenge them to create greater growth mindsets through workshops and community projects. Just don’t forget to celebrate the accomplishments along the way. an understanding of design thinking

Got an idea for an unconventional workshop, design sprint, or strategy refresh? Need a custom leadership acceleration or strategic agility session? We want to facilitate. 

The Inspire Series fosters connection and learning by celebrating stories of innovation, strategy, leadership, and change. Experience collective wisdom: sign up for our next webinar.

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