“Breaking the large group into smaller groups seems like a good idea,” said Rosa. We were talking about getting her department engaged in team problem solving. “I can see how that makes the contributions more anonymous.”

“It makes a huge difference. It allows the team to do something that it could never do before,” I said. Rosa’s eyes grew larger.

“What’s that?” she asked.

“Well, you know, Eric, your team’s eager beaver? When Eric has an idea, he is a little sensitive to the group’s response. Let’s say that one part of Eric’s idea has a creative spark, but the rest of the idea needs to be discarded. As long as it is Eric’s idea, the team has to tap-dance around, be politically correct and tactful. But if the ideas are flip charted from a small group, somewhat anonymous, whose ideas are they now?”

“Well, now they are the group’s ideas,” responded Rosa.

“So, if the ideas belong to the team, the team can now rip out that little creative spark, junk the rest of the idea, bolt the spark onto the back end of another idea, reverse engineer the logic and no one’s feelings get hurt.

“When it was Eric’s idea, the team couldn’t do that.” -TF