Exploring and Learning as a Team

At the beginning of a conceptual planning effort, teams face the challenge of beginning to understand the problem set, while also acknowledging that “they don’t know what they don’t know.” The team may be starting with a conceptualization of the problem set that is overly simplistic and possibly off-base. Preliminary discussions among team members at this stage allow members to share current thinking and assumptions about the problems, and to begin the process of intensive information gathering, reading, and reflection.

“During the first step of any problem solving effort, you’ve got to read more than you talk... You must study your head off initially to grasp the essence of the problem.”

(USMC LtCol)

Virtually all of the team leaders and team members we interviewed described engaging in an iterative and flexibly-organized set of activities for exploring and learning as a team that continued across the span of the effort. Learning as a team involves a mix of individual study and reflection interspersed with collaborative dialogue including knowledge sharing, capturing insights, critiquing concepts, and creating knowledge products and representations of the problem set’s complexities.

Key Issues and Challenges

The primary forum for the group’s discussion, critique, and exchange of ideas is the team’s discourse. Productive discourse is the catalyst that drives high functioning teams to generate new ways of thinking about the problem set, and to identify innovative solutions. Discourse is typically described as a way for team members to question one another’s ideas, and to refine the team’s thinking. And while discourse does have those impacts when it is done well, it has a number of additional benefits. For example, effective discourse:

Reveals the assumptions that underlie an argument or concept and reveals where team members may be biased in their current thinking. Also reveals what members might not be thinking about in regards to the problem set.
Displays the diversity that exists in the team and gives exposure to a range of viewpoints; it offers team members the opportunity to explore a concept from differing perspectives.
Reveals areas where the team may lack diversity or sufficient experience, and where external SMEs could be valuable.
Is a basis for developing shared mental models (Note) across the team that support the deep understanding of a problem space that teams are working toward.
Allows the team to identify boundaries and intersections between different areas of knowledge and cultural understanding. Finding creative solutions to complex problems often occurs at the boundaries between disparate areas.
Is an important basis for building trust in the team and the team’s processes.

As central as discourse is to the team’s learning efforts, conducting effective discourse within the team is not without its challenges. Planning teams face a variety of obstacles to effective discourse (see Leading the Team), and Commanders and team leaders play a central role in breaking down those barriers and creating an environment within the team that enables frank discourse to take place.

In addition to discourse, experienced team leaders and members identified cognitive flexibility as a critical facet in developing a shared understanding of complex problems. Cognitive flexibility is the ability to adjust how the team is thinking about the problem space in response to new information or shifting goals. Cognitive flexibility reflects an adaptive style of thinking that allows teams to engage in different modes of thinking, and to incorporate diverse and sometimes opposing points of view into their understanding of a problem space. A deeper understanding of the problem becomes possible when and if the team is able to step away from its current perspective, re-examine the team’s assumptions and mental models, and shift to a different framework for understanding the problem set.

In exploring problems as a team, it is important to be purposeful about engaging in different modes of thinking. Some examples of different ways of thinking described by experienced team leaders and members are:

“As we begin to learn more about our subject, we begin to conclude our problem is different than what we’re trying to solve, that the problem needs to be reframed. That leads to the first moment of challenge. Everyone has met and agreed that we’re going to address problem x, but the real problem is different or much more complex.”

(Civilian Designer)

Thinking about Thinking
This Is also known as metacognitive thinking and reflects a person’s awareness of his or her thinking style, usual paradigms or frames of reference, and associated biases. Thinking about how one thinks encourages individuals (and the team as a whole) to be explicit about the “frame(s)” they are using to understand a problem set. When teams are able to reflect upon and be explicit about how they are thinking about the problem, it allows them to also understand what they might not be thinking about — and to consider alternative points of view that might be important for appreciating the complexity of the problem set.
Thinking Holistically
In holistic or systems thinking, the team reflects on how components of a problem set relate to and influence each other, and how the components connect to the larger context (or system) of which they are a part. Holistic thinking is inherently integrative, and is important for helping teams break away from linear cause-effect and compartmentalized ways of addressing the problem (i.e., considering components of the problem set in isolation). When teams are able to adopt a systems-level view, members are able to see subtleties, indirect influences, and interactive effects that may be critically important for appreciating the problem’s complexity and anticipating 2nd or 3rd order effects of possible actions.
Thinking Expansively to Resolve Differences
Another approach reflects the way the team and its leader manage differences of opinion across the team. One team leader described her refusal to accept either compromise among the team, or voting for the best idea. Instead, she insisted that the team continue working away at the problem and the potential solutions until the team had identified concepts with which all team members could agree. The team expanded their thinking until it was able to encompass divergent points of view.

“I refused to allow it to become a voting situation, which is what the other guys wanted. [Voting] is an American cultural thing, where the best guy wins. [In this case] robust ideas are put forth and advocated for, and the best idea wins. I refused to ok [a process of] ideas winning, [or] a compromise where you water down an idea, or one idea won or lost. It had to be a 3rd way that everyone could agree to. That was the most frustrating thing to other guys on the team. Win or lose they wanted a decision. But I think we came out with a much better product because of that.”

(U.S. Army COL)

Perspective Taking
Perspective taking requires understanding the thoughts, feelings, and motivations of others and examining the problem space from another’s point of view. This can be particularly important in operational contexts where the culture is considerably different from the team’s cultural composition. Team members may have the tendency to think about the problem space from a U.S. Western point of view, rather than from the point of view of individuals and groups operating from a different cultural perspective. Taking the perspective of others can help to understand important connections and rationale that may be otherwise missed.

Thinking Visually
Visual thinking involves thinking and communicating using images and pictures, as opposed to thinking and communicating using language and text alone. Individuals and teams who engage in visual thinking use graphics and imagery to represent ideas and to explore the problem space. Thinking visually can yield rich and varied insights into complex and unfamiliar problems; teams are often surprised at how powerful visual thinking can be and how differently members can understand problems when they use a visual language to explore a problem set.

Interestingly, many of the team members we interviewed described the importance of having access to whiteboards and markers for working through problems and as a collaborative workspace for representing situations, concepts and problems graphically. Some team members also described the value of having people on the team who can think visually. However, our discussions rarely went much beyond those two aspects of visual thinking. In addition, when visual tools were used, they tended to be used for creating and representing the teams’ understanding at the end of the conceptual planning activity, rather than as a tool to help the team explore concepts and achieve fresh insights.

Each of the aforementioned modes of thinking can be incorporated into discourse sessions and independent reflection to encourage cognitive flexibility, enhance understanding, and help the team achieve innovative solutions. All of these modes of thinking require practice and support. Some of the strategies for helping team members to become more mentally agile are discussed in the Tips and Things to Consider section.

Tips and Things to Consider

There are several strategies, tools and techniques for helping a team make sense of an unfamiliar problem set and explore its complexities. We note a number of them next, organized into two topic areas: Engaging the team in productive discourse and fostering mental flexibility.

(Expand All)

Engaging the Team in Productive Discourse:

Use starter questions (Expand)

Use starter questions to help the team begin to frame (or reframe) the problem set. One suggestion is to work together as a team to generate all the questions the team can think of regarding the current situation. Record the team’s thoughts on a whiteboard as a basis for team discussion and/or further inquiry and reflection.

Identify a set of topics to explore (Expand)

Working as a team to identify an initial set of topics to explore will help the team get started in exploring and learning as a team. Identification of these topics may stem from the starter questions the team developed. Once the initial topics are identified, the team can begin exploring the topics through discourse, via the literature, or through contacts with experts and others in the know. The Commander or team leader might provide some initial topics to start with, but team members should be encouraged to expand the list in response to their own research.

Model the discourse process (Expand)

Team leaders who withhold their own point of view and explicitly ask for divergent viewpoints encourage the team to pursue alternative ways of thinking.

Consider appointing a devil’s advocate or red team representative (Expand)

Consider appointing a devil’s advocate or red team representative for each discourse session. The devil’s advocate role is to identify gaps in rationale, weaknesses in solutions, and to generate counterargument. While some individuals may naturally fall into that role, rotating this position across various team members avoids any particular person taking on the role of “resident skeptic.”

Encourage the team to view moments of confusion as informative (Expand)

Encourage the team to view moments of confusion as informative rather than negative or evidence that “things aren’t going well.” Points of confusion can be exciting, and can indicate where clarification is needed or when reframing is necessary. Ultimately, moments of confusion are catalysts for team learning. To work through these moments and keep the team moving, ask the team to identify “a next good step” rather than attempting to resolve the entire confusion—e.g., what information or type of expertise could help the team manage the uncertainty they are facing?

Guide discourse towards discussions that expand the team’s understanding (Expand)

Guide discourse towards discussions that expand the team’s understanding in which team members are encouraged to respond to and build on one another’s ideas, rather than repeating already stated positions and concepts.

Recognize when the team needs a break (Expand)

Recognize when the team needs a break from discourse or from each other. (see Managing Team Workflow and Productivity).

Vary the setting (Expand)

Vary the setting, including the room arrangement and where people sit. When people sit around the same table in the same seats in the same room that they always do, they tend to have the same conversation.

Set norms for the discourse interaction (Expand)

Set norms for the discourse interaction (e.g. no side conversations; no shouting; respectful language) and enforce them. The norms should belong to the team, rather than being the team leader’s responsibility. (see Getting Ready to Work).

Respect silence (Expand)

Many people are uncomfortable with silence and tend to fill pauses with words. But silence can be constructive, and allow team members a chance to think over the information and ideas that have been exchanged. Pauses also provide an opening when quieter, less vocal members have a chance to talk.

Encourage team members to use notecards or notebooks (Expand)

Encourage team members to use notecards or notebooks during discourse to capture ideas and responses to the discussion. Asking team members what they may have jotted down during a session can be another method for eliciting input from quieter members of the team.

Elicit chains of reasoning (Expand)

Encourage team members to be explicit about how they got from data to conclusions. This can help other members of the team better understand the logic behind one another’s insights.

Identify key issues, learning, insights, and questions (Expand)

At the end of a session, ask team members to identify key issues, learning, insights, and questions that have emerged from the discourse. Creating a set of major takeaways that all team members contribute to is preferable to having the team leader summarize the session. Summary items provide an “audit trail” that contributes to knowledge capture, and provides material and next questions for future discourse sessions.

Fostering Mental Flexibility:

Think about thinking (Expand)

Reflect upon and discuss how team members tend to think and approach problem-solving. Consider using tools such as cognitive style inventories that can help team members become more aware of their thinking tendencies (see Tools and Resources). Discuss how the military organization, as whole, tends to think and approach problems. For example, one design team leader used a strategy called “de-tacticalization.” He used a metaphor of a tornado to help the team increase its awareness of the military’s tendency to think in a tactical, reductionist, and linear/cause-effect manner, as opposed to an abstract manner.

An alternative is to ask team members to create a visual “mental model” of their thinking, problem solving, or learning process. A paper shapes toolkit can be helpful here. The toolkit can contain a set of basic forms– e.g., paper shapes, various types of lines for different kinds of groupings (e.g., solid, dashed, dotted, etc.), connection lines for association, and arrows for movement and direction can help. (Example Toolkits). For members who do not have experience in visualizing their thinking, a white board and dry erase markers are sufficient. Give each person an opportunity to present their mental model to the team, and discuss similarities, differences, and surprises.

Provide a variety of tangible work materials (Expand)

Provide a variety of tangible work materials in addition to standard books, journals, documents, whiteboards and laptops. The team should have materials for sketching and drawing, building small-scale models (e.g. LEGOs, foam blocks, play dough or clay), along with post-it notes, and highlighters and markers in a range of colors.

Actively consider and discuss alternative points of view (Expand)

Consider assigning team members to reflect on problems through a particular perspective (e.g., from a tribal chief’s perspective, from an NGO’s perspective, from a civilian’s perspective; or through an economic lens, a political lens, a humanitarian lens, etc). Consider using frameworks such as deBono’s “Six Thinking Hats” or IDEO’s “Ten Faces of Innovation” to identify a set of unique perspectives to take when exploring the problem space (see Tools and Resources). Another strategy is to consider polar scales (such as competition-cooperation, global-local, self-society, young-old) and to reflect on a particular issue through opposing ends of the scale. These exercises can also be helpful in identifying when the team may need to seek an external perspective to help the team reflect on the problem set.

Resist voting on the “best” idea (Expand)

The planner should avoid having to choose. Encourage the team to expand their thinking to account for multiple perspectives and options. Seek out the best features of competing options, and build a new option with the essences of all. While some ideas might seem to be in conflict at the outset, having the team delve deeper into the topics can mean they develop an understanding and insight that can bring those apparently conflicting ideas into alignment.

Use visual tools and techniques to explore the problem space, not just for depicting insights (Expand)

Outside the military, organizations that are professionally engaged in creative problem solving, innovation, strategic planning, and design (e.g. the Center for Creative Leadership, IDEO, Eastman Innovation Lab, Institute for Design at Illinois Institute of Technology, SonicRim, Doblin) use “visual language” tools and techniques to help people reflect on complex problems and develop innovative solutions. Some of their tools and approaches may be relevant and useful for military planning teams, not only for representing ideas as the problem-framing activity concludes, but for thinking through concepts in novel ways. These can be embedded into the team’s discourse sessions, or used individually to have a significant impact on a team’s thinking.

Visual language tools involve the use of color, graphics, images (photos, sketches), collage, and shapes to explore concepts and relationships. Visual tools allow a team to expand the modalities the team is using to think about and communicate complex ideas. In particular, visual tools can aid holistic thinking, helping the team to consider and depict interconnections and relationships among various elements of the problem space. This type of shared visual representation can help the team to consider how taking action upon one component of the system might impact multiple other components.

Consider using customized toolkits (Expand)

Consider using customized toolkits with shapes, words, connectors, and images (Examples) to explore complex concepts and depict potential future scenarios. Using such tools, members of the planning team can participate both directly and simultaneously in configuring the toolkit elements. Allow team members to use these kits first individually before the team attempts to use them collectively.

Combine and layer visual tools (Expand)

White boards and dry erase markers are good conduits for visualizing information for experienced visual communicators; they are also fast and easy to use. Post-it notes are easy to write on and move around, but are not as helpful for seeing the big picture. Paper shapes are more useful for individuals learning how to be more visual in their thinking. Big shapes can help the team to cluster ideas and can also help to reveal the big picture, individual concepts, and interrelationships. The ideal situation is to have access to all three modes and use them alone or together as needed.

Remind the team that artistic talent is NOT needed (Expand)

Using visual language tools to explore the problem space is not about creating good art, but about using a different set of tools to acquire new and different insights on the problems. Many adults need that reminder (sometimes repeatedly) before they are willing to engage with visual tools and techniques. Some members might be intimidated by graphic skills of others. Emphasize keeping visualizations rough at this point.

Tools and Resources

This section includes a set of tools and resources to supplement the topics covered in the “Engaging the problem as a team” module of this resource. This is not intended to be a comprehensive list of resources; but it provides a starting point for helping planning teams explore the problem space as a team and capture the team’s evolving understanding. The resources are organized according to the following topics: 1) visual thinking resources, 2) videos, 3) exercises, and 4) suggested reading.

Visual Thinking Resources

Periodic Table of Visualization Methods
Description: Examples of a variety of visualization methods organized like the Periodic Table of the Elements. Example visualizations can be accessed by clicking on each element.

Visual Complexity.com
Description: A resource for those interested in visualization of complex networks and visualization methods. Provides a series of examples of how others have visualized their findings and insights.

idiagram – The Art of Complex Problem Solving
Description: Visual approaches to help people think holistically about complex problems and communicate to those who must act on the problems. Examples of how others have represented complex problems can be accessed by clicking on links on left side of screen.

Maketools.com and Example toolkits [PDF]
Description: Source for ideas and visual toolkits for fostering collective creativity. See “Managing Complexity Collaboratively” to view visual toolkits in use.

Neuland.com
Description: Source for purchasing visual thinking and communication tools.

Visual Explorer Images [Product Listing]
Description: A set of images available for purchase to support teams in engaging in creative conversations and achieving new insights. See “Visual Explorer with David Horth” for more on Visual Explorer.

Videos

The Art of Data Visualization
Description: PBSoftBook digital series video that discusses the role of visual strategies to communicate information.

Exercises

Everyday Creativity Exercise [PDF]
Description: Helps team members recognize where and how their creativity is being expressed in everyday life, so they can then apply that way of thinking and being to their work.

Six Thinking Hats
Description: Exercise to encourage team members to look at a problem from different perspectives.

Art of Design, Student Text version 2.0 [PDF]
Description: School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS) text on design that provides multiple practical exercises and tools in Appendix B – e.g., Six Thinking Hats, Challenging Assumptions, Mind Mapping, Challenging Boundaries. See pp. 286-319.

MAKING SENSE OF COMPLEX PROBLEMS