What do you do if your creative problem-solving team is not collaborating effectively?

Make sure each person in the team has a role they can contribute to. Often the problem is that everybody wants to do everything and it leads to obvious disagreements. Having a role, being in charge and being entrusted with the lead and being on the hook are all necessary and empowering.

Figuring out "the why" is so important. Effective teams communicate, establish a baseline of psychological safety, and time to brainstorm. Working with the group as a whole as well as individually is critical. It may be more efficient to bring in a neutral third party to investigate and diagnose depending on the cause of the issue(s).

Collaboration is a very personal thing. You can be vulnerable, or at least feel that way. You are sharing personal ideas, your thoughts, putting yourself out there. First, start by building a culture of best ideas win. Not people, but ideas. Second, everyone has to leave ego at the door. Never attack the person, but thrash the idea. If it is a good one, it will stand on its own. Do not attach a person to the idea... many times I will play devils advocate and crash an idea I really like. Make people take polar sides to it. I may take the person who likes and share what all the holes in it could be. In building that culture, it takes time to build trust. Look to do team building, do some fun activities where everyone is working together

The US in trUSt is everything. It has to be a team effort to bring out the best ideas. A culture of best ideas win. To do that you have to make sure you have a very diverse group of people in the room. When you do that, everyone may have their own agenda. Building a creative culture takes time. You dont have to like everyone or their ideas, but we all have to create ideas, listen to each other and respect one another. Everyone has to understand. We need ideas that will save us. If we are not getting better our competition is. The only way to do that is to put everything out there. If issues, conflicts do arise, get together outside the group. Understand the true issue. Find common ground. Respect ideas. Do not attack the person.

Try new things! Maybe you have great tools but they are not working for this specific project. Try a typically effective approach in a new setting. Creativity can come in so many forms, the chance to mix things up could yield results on its own.

The best way to encourage more collaboration is to celebrate the wins when they happen. Talk about WHY collaborating helped ensure success on the project, and ask for constructive feedback on improving the process. Not just to improve the final solution but with the goal of making collaboration more rewarding for everyone involved.

Is it about the team or what is creative problem solving. To solve a problem do you need to be creative ? In the first instance to be creative means is to generate , grow and bring into being. It is like an artist starting with a blank canvas . To be creative is not to be bound by tools and processes . For the team to collaborate there must be no constraints. The team in the first instance be empowered to generate an original idea . Where each team member is able to contribute with no judgement . The team members curate their own “space”for creativity. This space will be values , tools , processes and behaviours. However this space must allow for freedom of engagement and expression. This space is the blank canvas for creativity .

Everyone has a view. Everyone can create ideas. Too many people think they are not creative. Some people not be idea starters, but idea builders or idea finishers. Those who can come up ideas out of thin air are horrible at executing the development. I like to have a good moderator. Someone who can get input from everyone. Every group will have those that try to dominate the conversation. Some will not speak up unless prodded. Some will defend ideas to the death & some will crush dreams for fun. Understand the personalities in the room. Do NOT let the highest level person in the room dictate. Some will not share with them in the room, do some private talks without them. They need to trust the group too. Make sure eveyrone has a voice.