Deliberate Insight

Preliminary analysis of data collected from trained expert facilitators of ad hoc creative teams suggests that complex analytical techniques such as costed function modeling and decision criteria matrix may have far more impact upon a team's creative effectiveness than frequently researched measures such as idea quantity. An intriguing relationship in these data between complex creativity and the amount of time spent in evaluating ideas and planning their implementation seems to suggest that a shift in definitional focus from ideas to the insights which reveal those ideas may facilitate both research into team creativity and planning of more effective team problem solving. Increasing the effectiveness of "crossfunctional teams" used by many organizations to increase their effectiveness with complex problems and opportunities is a major concern of many organizations and many individuals. The term "crossfunctional" refers to teams that involve representatives of each of the business "functions," such as marketing, engineering, production, etc. These teams have been around for many years, under labels such as "multi-discipline," "interdisciplinary," "task force," "diagonal-slice teams," "tiger teams," etc. The term is often used to refer to any team that involves the spectrum of perspectives needed to understand a prob-