Using Adaption-Innovation to Build High Performing Teams
- The Spark That Ignites -
"The more you know yourself and value others who are different, the more your team can turn diversity to mutual advantage.”
Dr. Michael Kirton
Do you want to help your teams become more creative at problem-solving? Do you want teams to include more “out-of-the-box” thinkers?
We believe all people solve problems and are creative. But...they differ in how they approach problem-solving. Adaption-Innovation (A-I) is directly concerned with the diversity with which people solve problems, generate ideas and solutions, and relate to and influence others. No style is basically good or bad, but is more or less useful in a particular circumstance. A-I is about a person’s preference for thinking style and how they use that to solve problems.
For today’s leader, the management of change and diversity ranks at the top of the “most challenging” list. The scope of problems and the need for problem-solving skills are as broad as the human race. Adaption-Innovation (A-I) is an effective way of building and enhancing individual and team leadership skills that address these issues.
Adaption-Innovation offers a fresh, inspirational approach to problem-solving leadership. It will help your teams gain valuable knowledge about how people think and relate to others, how to communicate more effectively, improve participation, respect team diversity and focus on the problem to be solved rather than how to manage each other.
Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory
“Problem-solving leaders live in a world in which key problems have become so complex, the time scales for solutions so short, and the demand for implementation so polished that no single person can dominate this process. Leaders need more than specialized knowledge and experience about the core problem and possible solutions. They need knowledge and skill in managing and inspiring diverse problem solvers.”
Dr. Michael Kirton
The KAI is a tool being used world-wide to help teams better understand how to become more creative, effective problem-solvers. It’s based on over 30 years of research and measures cognitive or thinking style. It is used extensively in the USA, the United Kingdom and in other countries throughout Europe and Asia for managing change, leading diversity, quality management, in strategic planning, building new structures, and renewing policies, practices, and procedures. It’s used by CEO’s, military leaders, quality executives, HR executives and specialists, university faculty, teachers, consultants to increase group cohesion and effectiveness; to sharpen problem-solving and team building skills and many other uses.
These style differences, which lie on a normally distributed continuum, range from high adaption to high innovation. The key to the distinction is that the more adaptive prefer their problems to be associated with more structure, with more of this structure consensually agreed, than do the more innovative. In short, they tend to produce solutions that make things “better.”
The more innovative prefer solving problems with less structure and are less concerned that the structure be consensually agreed than are those more adaptive. In short, they tend to produce solutions that make things “different.” These differences in style produce distinctive patterns of behavior. The whole range is essential for solving the wide diversity of problems that face individuals and groups over a long time.
A diversity of problems requires a diverse team—sometimes difficult to manage because each individual’s preference can also be seen to have disadvantages, especially by people not like them. The value of A-I and the KAI is to appreciate the value of diversity in problem-solving and change. To use this information to help make better use of one’s self and other people for mutual benefit, in every group of which you are a member.
The KAI is used to...
- Help teams become more creative and effective problem-solvers
- Gain insight into people’s preferred style of thinking
- Facilitate collaboration and diversity of thought in teams
- Enhance personal, leadership, and organizational development efforts
- Plan major organizational changes such as strategic planning or quality strategy
- Help facilitate idea generation
- Enhance quality improvement efforts
- Enhance individual awareness
- Help resolve conflict between individuals, within and between groups
- Assess, select, and recruit more effective team participants
What will you learn about innovation and problem-solving?
This 2-Day workshop will introduce you to a tool that is being used world-wide to help teams better understand how to become more creative and more effective at problem-solving. Adaption-Innovation (A-I) is a novel approach to understanding cognitive or thinking style and how it’s used in problem-solving, creativity, and decision-making. Using A-I you will develop a new perspective on innovation and problem-solving. At the heart of innovation is problem-solving. It is the essence of innovation! We’ve found that the secret to how people solve problems is in how they approach “structure.” That is, how they deal with rules, principles, boundaries, policies, procedures, etc. We’re able to assess preferences for structure in order to understand their strengths and weaknesses. That way we can craft a problem or a team to enable them to take advantage of their style to solve important business problems. This process is…
- Unique – There’s nothing else like it in the world
- Grounded in theory, tested and researched
- Proven useful with major organizations, the US military, and major universities
- Simple in concept
Benefits to Your Company
You will learn how to recognize and measure Adaption-Innovation in team members, how to manage diversity of team members, how to structure a problem-solving team and how to coach people to be more creative and effective in their efforts to solve important business problems. The results for your company will be:
- Increases in creative solutions to organizational problems
- A more formal process for identifying creative people, forming creative teams, and helping others be more creative
- A more innovative culture AND more effective in dealing with change
- A greater return on intellectual capital
- How to get the right people with the right competencies and the right talent together to solve the right problems
Who Should Attend
This program is for anyone who acts in the capacity of a team leader or is responsible for managing or assembling problem-solving teams or wants to learn more about creative problem-solving.
Using Adaption-Innovation to Build High Performing Teams
The Spark That Ignites
TWO-DAY PROGRAM AGENDA
PROGRAM GOALS
- Better understand styles of thinking
- Become familiar with characteristics of Adaption-Innovation
- Learn how thinking style limits or enables creativity, collaborative problem-solving, and innovation in teams
- Learn how adaption-innovation deals with diversity of style in problem-solving teams
- Learn how to apply A-I in the work context
DAY ONE
MODULE ONE – The Competence Perspective
- Introduction
- Problem-Solving Leadership and the Competence Perspective
- How People Think
- Style Preferences
- KAI Inventory
MODULE TWO – Adaption-Innovation
- The Role of Structure in A-I
- Characteristics and Measurement of A-I
- Action Learning-1
- Managing Diversity
- Problem-Solving: A&B
- Assignments
DAY TWO
MODULE THREE – Leadership and Structure
- Leadership, Cognition and Structure
- Action Learning: Crafting an Enabling Structure
- Team Selection
- Action Learning: Assembling a Team/Selecting Team Members
MODULE FOUR – Agents of Change
- Change Agents
- The Pendulum of Change/The Spiral of Change
- Action Learning: Coaching for Change
- Building an Innovative Culture
- Leadership, Competence and A-I
- Action Planning
- Adjourn
|
