You can’t solve big problems alone. Innovation, real, practical innovation, needs more than one brain. It needs a team that knows how to think together.

Most teams don’t work that way. You’ve probably sat through meetings that went in circles. No one agrees. Ideas get ignored. Some people talk too much, and others stay silent. What is the outcome? Average ideas, slow decisions & nothing new.

But when a team learns to think together, everything changes. People share ideas. They build on each other’s thoughts. They move from questions to answers, from insight to execution, and that’s when innovation team culture takes off.

Collaboration Drives Real Progress

You need collaborative problem solving to move fast and solve problems that don’t have clear answers. That’s where innovation begins. Not in someone’s head. In conversations, debates, feedback, and action.

Most teams focus on knowledge diversity- different roles, backgrounds, or skills. That’s useful. But it’s not enough. What matters more is how people think. Some people like to explore. Others want to test. Some move fast. Others want details. These thinking differences matter.

When you build a team with different problem-solving styles, and when each person understands how the others think, you get better results. You don’t waste time arguing or talking past each other. You move together, stage by stage, through the work.

Leverage Cognitive Diversity

Many organizations pride themselves on assembling teams with diverse experiences and job functions, but cognitive diversity is what truly propels innovation. The Basadur Profile identifies four distinct problem-solving styles: Generators, Conceptualizers, Optimizers, and Implementers.

A team of only Implementers may get things done fast but miss fresh opportunities. A group of Generators may overflow with ideas but struggle to follow through. When you understand how your team members naturally approach problems, you can intentionally pair people who balance and complement each other. This balance allows ideas to flow smoothly from imagination to execution, ensuring no good thought gets lost and no solution stalls before results.

Thinking Together Starts with Safety and Structure

You can’t think together if people feel unsafe. If your team avoids speaking up, hides mistakes, or fears being wrong, they’ll never take creative risks. Innovation dies fast in rooms where people hold back. That’s why psychological safety matters.

If you want people to be honest, ask questions, and try new things, you need to make it safe to fail. Safe to challenge ideas and safe to say, “I don’t know.”

But safety isn’t enough. You also need structure. That’s where tools like the Basadur Profile come in. It helps you map how each person thinks- do they prefer generating ideas, developing concepts, improving processes, or getting things done?

With that map, you can build teams that cover every stage of innovation. No one gets stuck. Everyone knows when to lead and when to follow.

The Basadur Simplexity Innovation framework breaks innovation into four stages:

1. Generation – Spot problems and new opportunities
2. Conceptualization – Turn raw ideas into clear solutions
3. Optimization – Improve and test those solutions
4. Implementation – Put them into action

Most teams struggle because they jump around and don’t follow the process. Jumping from an idea to a solution is a common mistake people and teams make. Or they stay too long in one stage. With a structure, you move in order and follow each step and stage of the process together, with the right people leading at each point.

Innovation Strategies for Collaborative Teams

Creating an innovation-focused team culture doesn’t require a massive overhaul. It starts with daily habits that promote openness, exploration, and shared responsibility.

Here’s what helps:

• Ask better questions. Use “How might we…” to frame problems as possibilities.
• Make ideas visible. Use whiteboards, sticky notes, or shared docs. Let everyone see how ideas evolve.
• Switch roles. Let someone who usually executes try brainstorming. Let an idea person test the rollout plan.
• Give feedback often. Not just at the end. Use check-ins to spot problems and adjust early.
• Talk about failure. Ask what didn’t work and what you learned. Normalize learning.

Small shifts like these build psychological safety, increase engagement, and help teams adapt their thinking habits. Over time, these behaviors become cultural norms, setting the stage for continuous innovation.

Thinking teams get better results

When your teams are thinking together, you stop wasting time. You avoid ideas that go nowhere. You reduce friction between departments. You make decisions faster. And most importantly, you create things that actually work.

You’ll also notice better morale. People like working on teams where they feel heard and challenged. They enjoy solving problems together. That motivation shows in the work.

As a leader, you play a key role. Pay attention to how your team works. Notice who speaks up. Notice where people get stuck. Use that insight to build balance, safety, and clarity.

You don’t need perfect thinkers to create a culture of team-based problem solving. You need people who think differently and know how to use that difference. That’s how you build a team that doesn’t just work together, but thinks together. Begin with our online assessment tool, the Basadur Profile, to assemble people who contribute to the innovation process with a diverse range of thinking and problem solving styles.

Continuous Improvement Through Reflective Practice

Building a team that thinks better together is not a one-time effort. It’s an ongoing process of reflection and adaptation. As teams evolve, they encounter new challenges, and each project provides fresh insights into how well they’re collaborating. By fostering a culture of continuous improvement, where feedback is not only welcomed but actively sought, teams can refine their processes and strengthen their innovation muscle. 

Encourage your team to regularly reflect on what worked, what didn’t, and how they can improve next time. Over time, this reflective practice becomes ingrained, driving long-term success and ensuring that your team doesn’t just meet today’s challenges but is equipped for future ones as well. 

The Basadur Profile and Basadur Innovation Process give teams the language, structure, and shared understanding to make these reflections meaningful and to turn them into action. It’s about learning how to solve them better, together!

Drive innovation and adaptability in your organization. CONTACT Basadur Applied Innovation to discover how we can help you build a future-proof strategy for sustained success.