Question

How you would bring a team together and lead them to start this initiative. The tools that you have used in the course Fostering a Culture of Innovation for (design thinking, creative-thinking styles, etc.) to get your team to leave its comfort zone and begin to generate potential ideas. Explain how the thinking style diversity or lack thereof of your team could potentially help or impede the plan.

Answer 1

I'll elaborate the question in my perspective referencing some sources which I thought would be helpful in digging deeper.

“In a world where numerous businesses sell similar products, brand distinction is crucial to succeed. A loyalty program presents an amazing opportunity for the business to create repeat customers and increase customer lifetime value. Most loyalty program are only an imitative of other competitor programs. The owners want to take advantage of the opportunity to create a distinctive organizational strategy separating their dealerships from those of the competitors. Therefore, one must have a loyalty program that stands out and breaks through the noise” (McEachern, 2017).

     When all is said and done, purpose really matters. Purpose articulates an organization’s value— its principal reason for existing—the end to which strategy is directed. Purpose is at the soul of strategy, giving course to all parts of an organization. “Purpose is who we are and what makes us distinctive—what we as a company exist to achieve ... articulating and tending to a purpose- driven strategy so that it fills this role is no easy task (Montgomery, 2008). Understanding the organization’s process is essential to setting strategy. You need to express the organization’s process with your team members. Be prepared to work determinately on developing excitement.

     As a leader the first step I would take to build an innovative customer loyalty program is the creation of a team because creativity is a collective effort (Catmull, 2008, p.3). I would use the discovery skill networking because it allows employees to meet people with different ideas and perspectives while extend their knowledge and domain (Dyer, et al., 2009, p.6). These skills directly provide opportunities for the creation of teams where there can be an interdepartmental approach to originating creative ideas.

     After the team would have been created we would meet and discuss the intended project. Using divergent thinking we would brainstorm possible ideas and directions we can take. After establishing a list of ideas, the next step is to use the principles of the Convergent Thinking (Puccio et al., 2012) to further evaluate the suggested ideas. As we move through with affirmative judgment we will focus on the positive elements of the ideas, carefully weighing the pros and cons. After establishing ideas, we can then clarify the results.

     My main objective is to be not only effective, but to bring enthusiasm and energy to my team. Many leaders have great ideas but failing to acknowledge what their flaws are can make them an ineffective leader. An article by Zenger & Folkman, (2009) discuss ten fatal flaws that derail leaders and the most important one that derails most leaders not taking a good look at themselves and ask for candid feedback, for their jobs will depend on it.

References

Catmull, E. (2008). How Pixar fosters collective creativity. Harvard Business Review, 86(9), 64 - 72.

Dyer, J. H., Gregersen, H. B., & Christensen, C. M. (2009). The innovator's DNA. Harvard Business Review, 87(12), 60 - 67.

McEachern, A. (2017, October 13). 6 strategies for a creative loyalty program

Montgomery, C. A. (2008). Putting leadership back into strategy. Harvard Business Review, 86(1), 54-60.  

Puccio, G. J., Mance, M., Switalski, L. B., & Reali, P. D. (2012). Principles for divergent and convergent thinking: Becoming a better creative thinker. In Creativity Rising: Creative thinking and creative problem solving in the 21st century (pp. 51 - 70). Buffalo, NY: ICSC Press.

Zenger, J., & Folkman, J. (2009). Ten fatal flaws that derail leaders. Harvard Business Review, (6), 18.

****Please please please LIKE THIS ANSWER, so that I can get a small benefit, Please****