Essential Skills for Teamwork - Essay Example

Group creativity can be enhanced by forming teams with members with various types of personalities. The Myers-Briggs Test is a tool to determine the type of personality a person. Among the different personality types, there are thinkers, feelers, intuitive, and sensors. The conjunction of all the different preferences of people of a variety of personality types brings a unique and valuable perspective to the problem-solving process (Allen, 2006).

Open communication is always important within team settings in order to avoid misunderstandings and achieve a faster transfer of information. Providing feedback to another member about ideas and work realized is a good practice that can be used as a quality control mechanism and as a learning tool. Once a team has formed the work to be performed has to planned in a manner to stimulate creativity and innovation. Individuals usually are inclined towards particular types of tasks that they find more motivating.

It is wise to find out what those preferences are and assign work according to these criteria if possible. Motorola is an example of a company that implemented measures to enhance the creativity of the researchers within the organization in group settings. The company's traditional strategy was to place researchers in workshops to solve business cases which were followed by group brainstorming sessions to ignite creative thinking. The company was not getting the desired results. “They didn’t always explore all the possible applications and ideas were not always focused or organized around the potential impact on Motorola and its end-users” (Inventables).

The solution the company utilized was purchasing an advanced educational package in the form of Inventables Design Aid issues. The new information had a larger scope and exposed the researchers to scenarios from different industries. Team formation has become a process for companies seeking to increase collaboration and higher work outputs. In the 21st century, the reality of a global environment is revolutionizing the ways teams are created. The new platform which is being selected is the creation of virtual teams.