All work today and in the future will be done (it seems) in groups and teams.
As such, new collaborative tools such as Zoom, Slack and Microsoft Teams have been developed and continue to add new features.
This is a welcome initiative given employees desire to work from home and to adapt to health threats such as Covid.
Also with new generations being technological literate, interacting in groups and teams online is for many people second nature.
However the emphasis on developing new ways to work together is missing one important ingredient.
What is missing are new ways to think together.
Just because a group is collaborating does not automatically mean they are being creative or innovative.
If you have 6 people in an online chat space for example who all think the same it does not lead to breakthrough ideas.
We need a new way to creatively think together.
I call this new way Switch Thinking.
Switch Thinking is a way for the group or team to switch from their usual to a different way of thinking – instantly.
By doing so, the creativity of the group is multiplied.
For example, If the group or team is facing a problem where new ideas are needed:
They could all adopt a different perspective and view the problem with fresh eyes.
It could be as a customer, shareholder, competitor or startup etc..
Then they could switch their perspectives and see what new ideas emerge.
Then try and connect their initial ideas to make a bigger solution.
This is switch thinking in action.
It means that groups can unlock and multiply the creativity of each member and the whole group – quickly.