How might market research better engage with sales?

A Financial Services division wanted to differentiate its credit cards and needed our help.  In fact, the company, a major retailer, was making their first attempt at launching their own credit card into a competitive marketplace.

The market research team looks a lot like this:

The market research team was loaded with many conceptualizers who were eager to present 57 pages of great new customer information to a waiting sales team. Guess what the sales team looks like?

The sales team looks a lot like this:

This is a typical scatter diagram of a sales team – they are usually loaded with implementers who like to learn by doing, rather than learn by thinking and watching. Digesting 57 pages of detailed analysis will lead to paralysis.  These people will likely be falling asleep by the time the third slide comes up. The market research team needs to find different ways to communicate its key findings to sales people. 

What might you recommend to help this market research team?

1. The market research team should explain to the sales team the importance of clearly defining the problem before taking action, and the risk of re-work and employee fatigue due to problems not getting solved.
2. The market research team should keep the information brief and to the point.

“You’re an innovator, you just don’t know it yet!” Learn more about the Basadur Profile and how it measures cognitive diversity to support your team in achieving innovative results. 

How do you empower a Board of Directors to be more strategic thinkers?

We teach a module on creative and critical thinking in a program that certified graduates with a designation to be a future “chartered” board director.  As part of the module, the Basadur Profile was administered to help each person learn about their own individual innovation style as well as introduce the concept of innovation as a continuous process rather than event driven. These people have typically risen to the top of their organizations as great implementers. They’ve demonstrated their skills in getting necessary things done well.  In the quarterly results world, getting things done is of supreme importance.

However, the role of a board member is to be a conceptualizer – to provide vision and help the organization chart a successful future. This is strategy – not operational work.  It can be a challenging shift for individuals, and collectively, can result in dysfunctional boards that are inclined to micro-management and lack a process for working well together.

In this particular cohort, the one dot located on the far right of the diagram represented a woman taking part in the training who was frequently at odds with the rest of the group. The Profile exercise helped the group recognize why they often saw her as “getting in the way” of their forward progress.

What might these participants do to become more comfortable with the conceptualizing needs of their role as a board member:

1. Force themselves to deliberately pause before rushing toward action.
2. Take a step back and realize their role is a strategic one – the CEO they hire operationalizes the strategy.
3. Spend more time in defining problems from many different angles.
4. Shadow or work with a fellow conceptualizer to become better in this style. 
5. Force themselves to not micromanage and stay out of the day-to-day minutia of running the business.

“You’re an innovator, you just don’t know it yet!” Learn more about the Basadur Profile and how it measures cognitive diversity to support your team in achieving innovative results. 

What do you do when your organization jumps too quickly into solutions?

The Team 

Another example from the archives involves our work with a large automotive company.  This example is still relevant today. After recording losses in several consecutive business quarters, the company decided to undertake initiatives to change its operations. One of the most important initiatives was a plan to actively involve employees in improving quality, customer satisfaction, and increasing innovation. The company wished to involve managers in “managing the business” rather than just “doing my job.”

In an effort to encourage salaried employees and managers to take the initiative in identifying opportunities for improvement and tackling them creatively, the company looked to the Basadur Innovation process. 

We applied the process to a challenge at a newly modernized plant responsible for a major component of the company’s new front-wheel drive automobiles. The plant was setting new records for quality and low cost, but one department struggled. Only about one-third of its output met the company’s high-quality standards, and employees had to work heavy overtime schedules to keep up with orders. The plant managers had tried several quick-fix solutions to resolve the problems, but none had worked. 

Working with a cross-functional team of 15 plant managers and supervisors, we provided a half-day of training in our process, then spent two and a half days applying the process to the challenges at the plant. 

During the training, the team members were asked to complete the Basadur Profile to identify their preferences for the process stages. The profiles provided the team with a very revealing insight. Of the 15 team members, eight were heavily oriented toward implementation. The other seven were heavily oriented toward optimization. None favored generation or conceptualization.

What’s missing? 

The team was composed of people who preferred to jump quickly to solutions and action rather than carry out fact-finding and problem-definition. Discussion about these results led team members to identify many instances when they had mistakenly made assumptions about the plant’s problem, leading to one failed solution after another. Rather than taking time to define the problem accurately, they simply jumped from the problem into one solution after another. They had spent all their time alternating between the final two stages of the process (Optimization and Implementation), and none in the initial two stages (Generation and Conceptualization). They were using only half of the creative process.

What did they do? 

These solution and action-oriented individuals agreed to spend two days generating and conceptualizing activities – gathering facts and defining problems even though the exercise was against their preferred style. The activity helped the team identify three specific problem definitions, which led to creating simple, but specific solutions that could be quickly implemented. Within several months, the plant tripled its production. They found their solutions once they employed the entire innovation process.

“You’re an innovator, you just don’t know it yet!” Learn more about the Basadur Profile and how it measures cognitive diversity to support your team in achieving innovative results.

Some jobs require employees to be highly specialized in one innovative style.

Air traffic controllers – aren’t we glad? Air traffic control is a very fast-paced, exacting profession.  Straying from what is protocol could result in drastic consequences. We don’t want these people to be learning and devising new ways to land a plane while the planes are landing, so it’s good to see that they are implementation-oriented. 

This scatter diagram provides a clear example of people being drawn to jobs that allow them to satisfy their problem solving preferences. Air traffic controllers enjoy – and are intrinsically motivated by hands-on, action-focused tasks. While that makes them successful at their jobs, they can become better problem-solvers when they are trained in the innovation process. 

But even with training, our research has found that it can be challenging to move highly specialized people out of their preferred styles. Extrinsic motivations, such as incentives, may be necessary to make it attractive to them to consistently complete the entire problem solving cycle.

Our research shows that people tend to be drawn to jobs that satisfy their innovation style preference: Generator, Conceptualizer, Optimizer, and Implementer. Each style has unique strengths and preferences in approaching problems. However, to become better problem-solvers, it’s crucial for individuals in such roles to be trained in the problem-solving process – even air traffic controllers.

“You’re an innovator, you just don’t know it yet!” Learn more about the Basadur Profile and how it measures cognitive diversity to support your team in achieving innovative results.

What do you do when innovation stagnates in your organization?

Overcoming Innovation Stagnation

This scatter diagram is from the archives. The story has a very happy ending as the company we profiled in this example has increased its share price 10x after years of stagnating. At the time, this was a typical team’s innovation style distribution at a major high-tech software company. Internally, they were very worried about falling behind, and with good reason. They were focused on making incremental improvements to their products (the n+1 business), often spending millions of dollars and human resources building and testing functionality that fewer than 1% of customers would ever use.

The higher up that you went inside the company, the more we encountered optimizers and implementers. Short-term fixes and quarter-end results were the name of the game. This created a culture focused on making continual, small improvements to its products and processes. With few people working to develop brand-new ideas or products, the company was vulnerable to being replaced by a more innovative competitor.

Today’s business world, especially high-tech, is littered with examples of hugely successful companies that rapidly lose their market share when newcomers remake the market with an innovative new product. Organizations in rapidly changing industries can’t afford to underestimate the importance of building teams that understand how to thoroughly and methodically work through the innovation process. Along with recruiting individuals who are enthusiastic about working on the generation and conceptualization stages of innovation, companies should use external facilitators, training, and incentives to embed an adherence to high-quality, process-driven innovation work into their workforces.

In utilizing the Basadur Profile, the company was able to identify this lack of generators and conceptualizers. With this knowledge, they focused on training team members to access and develop skills that will nurture the imbalance in these thinking styles. They changed their CEO who knew the key to long-term success was a culture change that bridged the gap between those people on the right side of the scatter diagram and the folks on the left. They started collaborating – engineers and designers working and innovating side-by-side rather than operating in silos.

Attributes of Generators include:

1. Being able to think divergently.
2. Having a high level of idea fluency, they produce numerous ideas quickly.
3. Natural curiosity, they enjoy exploring new concepts and possibilities.
4. Openness to uncertainty.
5. Initiating creativity.
6. Connecting seemingly unrelated concepts or ideas.
7. Producing a large quantity of ideas.

Attributes of Conceptualizers include:

1. Ability to synthesize information.
2. Engaging in abstract thinking, looking beyond the concrete details.
3. Having a visionary outlook, to see future possibilities.
4. Focusing on the big picture.
5. Being skilled at recognizing patterns and trends, to identify connections.
6. Serving as a source of inspiration for innovative thinking.

By understanding and addressing the thinking preferences within an organization and implementing strategies to leverage each style’s strengths, a company can create a more innovative and dynamic work environment. Encouraging a culture of innovation involves addressing not only the lack of ideas but also ensuring that there is a supportive infrastructure for turning those ideas into tangible results.

The Basadur Profile is designed with the premise that individuals possess a combination of thinking styles (Generator, Conceptualizer, Optimizer, and Implementer) to varying degrees. The Profile is designed to capture the diversity of thinking preferences and strengths within a team, emphasizing the importance of a balanced team that can effectively navigate through the entire innovation process.

“You’re an innovator, you just don’t know it yet!” Learn more about the Basadur Profile and how it measures cognitive diversity to support your team in achieving innovative results.

“You’re an innovator, you just don’t know it yet!” Learn more about the Basadur Profile and how it measures cognitive diversity to support your team in achieving innovative results.

What do you do when one innovation style dominates the others on your team?

The Background

The scatter diagram shows a strategy development team working at a large American health insurance company. Tasked with recommending a new corporate strategy to senior management, the team was unable to agree on a final recommendation.  They were struggling with what is known as “paralysis by analysis”. Each time they thought they had a recommendation to forward, someone insisted on revisions to take new information into account or make the strategy more comprehensive. It appeared likely that the group would never be satisfied with a result or complete its task. 

Completion of the Basadur Profile was instrumental in showing the team to be composed entirely of conceptualizers, except for one implementer — the administrative assistant. The team was advised to diversify its membership by adding people with a preference for optimization and implementation to help them select and deliver an acceptable strategy to management, rather than try to attain perfect understanding. 

Dealing with One Dominant Style:

Conceptualizers are known for their creativity and ability to generate a wide range of ideas. However, having too many Conceptualizers on a team can lead to potential challenges. Some implications include idea overload, a lack of implementation, difficulty making decisions, and a risk of over-complexity.

To address these challenges, it’s beneficial for teams to have a balance of thinking styles. Optimizers and Implementers, for example, can contribute by refining and executing ideas. The diversity of thinking styles ensures that a team can both generate creative solutions and effectively bring those solutions to fruition.

Takeaways and Tips: 

• Facilitate Collaboration: Encourage collaboration and communication among team members. This allows Conceptualizers to work with those who may have strengths in refining and implementing ideas.
• Introduce Structured Processes: Implement a framework for problem-solving. This can help guide the team through a systematic approach, ensuring that the ideation phase is followed by steps focused on refinement and implementation.
• Assign Roles and Responsibilities: Ensure that individuals with strengths in optimization and implementation are assigned tasks that align with their skill sets.
• Set Clear Objectives: Clearly define the goals of the team. Having a clear direction helps Conceptualizers channel their creativity toward solutions that are aligned with the team’s overall mission.
• Implement Decision-Making Criteria: Establish criteria for decision-making to help the team evaluate and prioritize ideas. This ensures that the team can select the most viable and feasible solutions from the pool of generated concepts.
• Foster Open Communication: Create an environment where team members feel comfortable expressing their thoughts and concerns. Open communication helps the team identify challenges early on and work collaboratively to address them.
• Celebrate Diverse Contributions: Acknowledge the strengths of Conceptualizers while also appreciating the skills and perspectives of those with other thinking styles.

“You’re an innovator, you just don’t know it yet!” Learn more about the Basadur Profile and how it measures cognitive diversity to support your team in achieving innovative results.