Strategic thinking is an essential leadership skill. Our learning team has learned to consider our current decision-making strategies, and examine our options for choosing the best strategy for any situation be it one-sided, compromise, collaboration and deciding-by-majority rule. As a learning team we will identify any problem someone on the team may have such as being shy, not very talkative and hesitate about having to stand in front of the class while presenting our presentation. Being part of a well functioning learning team identifying the problem(s) and wanting to do something about it is the first step.
Analyze all parts of the situation to figure out what is stopping a team member(s) from getting what the team need to solve the problem. As a team make up a list of the varies solutions. Think about the different possible ways to solve the problem at hand. Make a list of possible pro and cons of each solution. This step helps you to think about the risks involved with making a decision.
No matter what you try, there is going to be some uncertainty involved. Choose the solution that the entire learning team likes the most and try it. Review the results. Think about what happens.
Brainstorming usually works best with a group. The purpose of brainstorming is to let everyone voice their opinions and say what is on their mind to better identify possible solutions to a problem. When working in learning team especially a team where everyone may or may not be working together for the first time. It is important not to make any judgments about an idea. You want to encourage everyone to get involved no matter how far out his or her idea seems. No put-downs.
Let every team member participate. It is important not to belittle any ideas that may be presented. Someone should write down all the ideas. Don’t leave any ideas out, no matter how crazy they seem.
Keep your mind open to all ideas, both your own and others. When the team has tried all ideas, crazy, outlandish, and otherwise, we make a rough draft and finally evaluate what ideas are real possibilities and what ones should be dismissed. As we narrow down the ideas, we will consider how an idea might be seen and understood in another way that might be useful. Eventually, we want to end up with a great number of solutions, something like 3 to 5 of them.
It might be the case that we can even mix and match parts of ideas into new solution. Throughout the whole process, we make sure that everyone is encouraged to participate and that everyone’s input is treated with respect. We remember that everyone has something to contribute. Some of the best ideas may come from the quieter people.
Keeping in mind that some people may be slower to express their ideas because they tend to develop the ideas more fully in their head before expressing them. Also, everyone has different experiences to bring to a problem. .
