Building HOT teams—Revolutionizing how teams THINK together! by Min Basadur of Basadur Applied Creativity

Building Hot Teams

Revolutionizing how teams think together
to deliver return on innovation (ROI)

Cincinnati 2012 Innovation Summit
PDMA & AMA
October 18, 2012

Min Basadur

Copyright Basadur Applied Creativity 2012

Hot Teams learn how to:

1. Follow an innovation process together
2. Ask the right innovation questions: “How might
we?” and “Why?-What’s stopping us?”

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Agenda

• The innovation process hot teams learn to follow.
• The questions hot teams use over and over:
How might we?
Why might we? What’s stopping us?
• How hot teams synchronize their diverse cognitive styles
• Real world examples of bottom line ROI
• An On-line hot teams profiling tool
• Questions and Answers


Min Basadur

• Engineering Physics, University of Toronto

• Procter & Gamble

• University of Cincinnati, Ph.D.

• McMaster University

• Basadur Applied Creativity


The Basadur Network

• 6 Certified Trainers in US, Canada
• 50+ Certified Facilitators across the globe
• IP licenses with 2 firms – US and Spain
• Academic Research Partners & Publications
• 15,000+ people have taken the Basadur Profile in last 5
years – translated into 15 languages


Some Recent Clients


Real And Tangible Results for ROI

Procter & Gamble ROI
$400M per year to the bottom line
– 4% of sales

The question: How might we
spend our money in more
innovative ways?


P&G’s People Engagement Strategy

The Goal: The Structure:
$400 Million Savings Inter-disciplinary hot
teams deliberately
seeking innovative
changes

Common
Team
Innovation
Process


Real And Tangible Results for ROI

Frito-Lay ROI
Bottom line cost savings of
$500M in four years .

The question: How might we
engage our people in using their
creativity to offset inflationary
cost increases?


Frito-Lay: Make the Business Need as
Measurable as Possible and Start at the Top

The Goal:
$500 Million in Five The Structure:
Years to the bottom line Begin with
Vice-Presidential
Inter-disciplinary hot team

Common
Team
Innovation
Process


Asking the Right Question:
Why Might We Want to?

Step 1: Ask “Why? / or What’s stopping?
Step 2: Answer in a complete simple statement
Step 3: Transform the answer


Irish Spring


Challenge Statement

HMW make a
better green
striped bar?


Irish Spring Challenge Map

HMW regain market share?

Why?
HMW make a better green striped bar?


Irish Spring Challenge Map

HMW regain market share?

Why?
HMW make a more refreshing bar?

Why?
HMW make a better green striped bar?


Coast


Hot Teams Do Not Jump From 1 To 8

But, Hot Teams DO Proceed
1 Through 8
Most people think in terms of solutions, not in
terms of problems. They often solve the wrong
problem because they are in too big a hurry.


Speaking of ROI
The team could have saved about $150,000 … if it knew
how to follow the innovation process ….and defined
the problem at the beginning.
Also it could have entered the market 6 months
earlier


Research: Characteristics of Effective
Organizations

React

Routine

Proactive


Proactive Adaptability

Anticipating problems, trends, opportunities
Seeking new technologies and methods
Deliberately disrupting
Finding new work
Accepting new ideas promptly


Good Examples

Tylenol

Toyota, Honda

Amazon.com, 3M, Apple


Today’s organizations must deal with complex
problems requiring creativity and team work
much more so than in the past.


Adaptability Requires Different Thinking Skills.
Problem Finding is the key.
Adaptable Organizations do not wait for problems.


Problem Finding Cultures

New Scientists and Engineers

World Class Employee Suggestion Systems


Japanese World Class Employee
Suggestion Systems

• Not optional
• Golden eggs
• Natural work teams
- find, solve and implement


Nippondenso Work Team Example

Problems Solutions Actions


Japanese World Class Employee
Suggestion Systems

The main objective:
• Motivation
• Group interaction
• Job satisfaction

660,000 implemented suggestions in
one year from 9,000 people


Opportunity for creative activity results in
motivation (not the other way around)

• Maslow
• Herzberg
• Berlyne
• Whyte
• McClelland
• Deci and Ryan
• Locke and Latham


Hot teams help Create a New Culture …
They learn to say “How might we?”

By reversing negative thinking
We can’t because …
Would cost too much …
How might we …? Becomes
It’s not budgeted …
part of a new language of
By looking for problems to innovation .
turn into golden eggs


Research: Teams who learn to use the
innovation process produce better results
(ROI)

Innovative Results = Content (The What)
+ Process (The How)
+ Process Skills
(to make the process work)


The Innovation Process Has Four
Continuous Stages


Different people prefer different innovation
process stages

We call these innovation process styles


A Fundamental Concept
Successful Innovation requires a combination of

Knowledge, Imagination, Evaluation, and Action
But we have different styles of using this combination …


The Basadur Profile : How we are different:

Two ways of gaining knowledge:
- Through direct experience
- Using abstract thought


The Basadur Profile: How we are different

• Two ways of using knowledge:
- To ideate (create options)
- To evaluate (judge options)


Two Different Ways of Gaining
and Using Knowledge


Which might be your most preferred style ?

Implementer Generator
• action, results • new problems, challenges
• understanding not necessary • different perspectives
• adapt to changing circumstances • create options (diverge) rather
• enthusiastic but impatient than evaluate
• bring others on board, but … • enjoy ambiguity
• dislike apathy • keep all options open

Optimizer Conceptualizer
• analytical thinking • abstract thinking
• practical solutions to well • create new insights
defined problems • problem definition; big picture
• find the critical few factors • clear understanding necessary
• evaluate options rather than • high sensitivity to and
diverge appreciation of ideas
• see little value in “dreaming” • not concerned with moving to action
• dislike ambiguity


Quadrant Tensions

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Implementers View of Conceptualizers

• Wonder why they get paid
• Never see them do anything
• Always see them thinking

QUADRANT TENSIONS 1-888-88SOLVE 39

Conceptualizers View of Implementers

• Dangerous because they’ll do anything
• Don’t appear to think first
• Bang their heads against the wall


Optimizers View of Generators

• Unable to focus on the “real” problem
• They start working on five new
problems before one is solved
• Are hard to “pin down”


Generators View of Optimizers

• Too narrow minded
• Cannot see the big picture
• Think they know the right
answer but might be for
the wrong problem


What Our Research Shows About the
Different Process Style Preferences

1. Everyone is a blend of preferences
2. States not traits
3. You can be skilled in all four quadrants
4. Heterogeneous teams perform more innovatively
(but have less satisfaction)
5. Generators are in shorter supply in corporations
6. Different jobs/functions favour different styles


Examples of Blends of Styles

1. One quadrant very preferred
2. Two quadrants equally strongly preferred
3. One quadrant most preferred with two adjacent
quadrants substantially preferred


Quadrant 1 Very Preferred, All Others Small

EXAMPLES OF BLENDS OF STYLES 1-888-88SOLVE 45

Quadrants 4 and 1 Equally Strongly Preferred


Quadrant 1 Most Preferred
Two Adjacent Quadrants Also Substantially Preferred


Imbalanced Teams

• Overly Short-Term Focus
• May be overloaded with Implementers and Optimizers
- “Fire fighting”
- Constantly re-working failed solutions
- Missing opportunities to improve and change


Imbalanced Teams

• Overly Short-Term Focus
• May be overloaded with Generators and Conceptualizers
- Develop good ideas but don’t get them implemented
- Slow to market with new products and services
- Satisfied even if not much is getting done


Not Enough Time Devoted to
Conceptualization and Optimization
An organization
attempting to
establish new financial
products quickly in a
very competitive
environment, but
encountering a high
percentage of failures.


Not Enough Generators?
A typical group of
managers from a large
aerospace company
serving the aircraft,
airline, and aerospace
industries wanting to
expand faster into
new products and
new market.


Great Ideas But No Action!
Old fashioned company
desperately needing a
breakthrough idea
forms a team and is
successful.


Maybe We Selected the Wrong Mix of
People?
A small “Spin Off”
company especially
created for generating
new product
opportunities but only
a few trickling in ….


Too Many Conceptualizers?
An HR strategy
development team in
a large health
insurance company is
having difficulty
moving forward. They
are unable to decide
which new strategy to
recommend and keep
on coming up with
new ones.


A Major High Tech Software Company
Fearing Falling Behind …


Air Traffic Controllers, Aren’t We Glad?


A Pretty Well Balanced Team, Wouldn’t You
Say?
An interdisciplinary
team leading a new
quality of work life
initiative at a large
hospital.


Is It Going To Be Difficult To Get Their Attention?
The leaders and staff
of the hospital are
being asked to get
involved a new
quality of work life
HR initiative.
But they are awful
busy doing the day-
to-day work.


The Market Research Team Looks a Lot Like This


Is the market research team in for a big surprise?
The Market Research
team is eager to
present 57 pages of
great new data to the
Sales Team
(assembled and
waiting).


A Financial Services Division Wanting to
Differentiate Its Credit Cards and Needing Help


Ontario College of Art and Design: Students
Entering Master’s Program in Strategic Foresight and
Innovation


Lean Six Sigma Symposium


More Examples of
Return on Innovation

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Impact of Integrating Innovation Process And
Skills Into CI Teamwork


What Is Cognitive Diversity?

It is: Diversity in How people think and problem solve

It is not: Diversity in What people know (due to differences
in function, education, race, ethnicity, gender, etc.)


Simplexity Thinking: A Process Driven by Skills
And Synchronized Styles

• Using the process continually: finding and defining
problems, solving them, and implementing the solutions
• Performing the skills that make the process work
• Respecting others’ problem solving styles
• Devoting special attention to problem definition and
implementation


Innovative Behavior: A Continuous Process Flow


Would You Like to Try Out the Styles Profile?
Here’s how:
1.Visit our profile website www.basadurprofile.com
2.Follow the instructions
3.Sign up as an individual or create a team account
4.Purchase the Team Builder Kit to facilitate a fun
hot team session
5.You will receive an Instructor's Guide and a set of
facilitator’s slides


The Basadur
CPSP Profile
Facilitator’s Guide to
Debriefing the CPSP
Profile Experience


More examples of ROI

• Hot Wax
• Automatic Case Pack: Lay the Bags Flat
• Cube Utilization


Hot Wax

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The team is stuck.
It s not a hot team.

HOT WAX 1-888-88SOLVE 84

The team has been working very hard for 12 months to
find a solution to the challenge: “How might we mix
the wax and water without violating the
competitor’s patent?”

Hot Wax 1-888-88SOLVE 85

Redefining the problem
“How might we develop something we could call a hot
wax that is compatible with water and provides a
benefit to cars?”

ROI: a unique product with a patent … to the market in
five months.
ROI: 12 months of wasted time $100,000

Hot Wax 1-888-88SOLVE 86

The Automatic Case Packing team

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The team is stuck.
It is not a hot team.

THE AUTOMATIC CASE PACKING TEAM 1-888-88SOLVE 88

Lay the Bags Flat
Fact: Manufacturing has found a way of automatically packing
bags of potato chips into cartons instead of manually. This
saves $30 Million but the bags must be laid flat instead of
upright in the carton.

Fact: Sales people need to let the grocer count the number of
bags in a carton quickly before he will pay. If the bags are
flat this will take longer and this will prevent the
salesperson from making the target number of sales calls
per day.

Fact: The group is stuck and management is frustrated.


Defining the Problem Creatively
“How might we lay the bags flat yet still let the grocer
quickly know how many bags are inside the carton?”

ROI: $30 Million per year… directly to the bottom line


Cube Utilization

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The team is stuck.
It is not a hot team.

CUBE UTILIZATION 1-888-88SOLVE 92

Fact: Frito-Lay trucks go out only half full of potato chip cartons.
Fact: A new method of loading trucks has been identified.
• Trucks would be 95% full.
• $12 Million would be saved.

Fact: A team has been testing the new method to ensure the
new method will not result in more chip breakage.
The team is also trying to determine if there is an optimal
level of chip breakage that consumers prefer.


Digging out the Hidden Facts
The facilitator repeatedly asked the team the question:
“What else is stopping you from making a
recommendation to adopt the new method?”

Someone on the team finally answered:
“We are afraid of making the recommendation without
being sure there is no risk ”.


Defining The Problem Creatively for ROI !
“How might we write the recommendation in such a way that
management understands the risk and shares it with us?”
The recommendation was written that same day and adopted
by management immediately.

ROI: Saving $12 Million directly to the bottom line
Hot teams learn to say :’What’s stopping us?”


Additional Examples of ROI


Ford Motor Company 40 cases/shift
The management team is very worried. None of their
solutions have worked. Their team styles profile looks like
this:

Eight Zero
Implementers Generators

Seven Zero
Optimizers Conceptualizers


The team agreed to devote two days to fact finding
and problem defining.

Problem
finding
Fact finding

Problem
definition


The team defined three new problems, solved them,
and implemented the solutions.

Generating
(Problem
Implementing finding, fact
(Action) finding)

Optimizing Conceptualizing
(Solutions) (Problem
definition)


Real & Tangible Results for ROI (continued)

Toronto Sunnybrook and Hamilton Ontario Juravinski
Regional Cancer Centers
- Innovation teams reduced Radiation Therapy Wait Times by
39%
J.P. Morgan
- Innovation process used as a RAPID BUSINESS ANALYSIS tool
to strategically plan company wide IT investments.
- Prioritized 300 projects down to 16 in 4 months vs.
traditional tools which take more than 1 year.
- Breakthrough success resulted in 50% increase in IT budget.


Real And Tangible Results

Pfizer
• Aspirational strategic planning and bold
business-accelerating ideas for double-digit
growth
• Unified regions under a single World HQ
vision and imperative


Thank You!

For further information on the Profile or the
Simplexity Applied Creativity process, please visit

www.basadur.com

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TITLE Copyright Basadur Applied Creativity 2012

Building HOT teams—Revolutionizing how teams THINK together! by Min Basadur of Basadur Applied Creativity

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