RUNNING HEAD: Teambuilding with brains 1

Teambuilding With Brains

Abby McLinden

Ivy Tech Community College

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Teambuilding is an important part of life in the workplace. There’s the saying “the sum is

greater than it’s parts”. An effective team is exactly that. It means being able to effectively work

together to solve problems and overcome obstacles that one individual on their own might

struggle to do so.

Part of that, and a more overlooked part of it too, is having what is known as ‘cognitive

diversity’ in a team. There are many ways people can be different, and the article Teams Solve

Problems Faster When They’re More Cognitively Diverse discusses the effect of two different

ways of processing information. (Reynolds and Lewis, 2017.)

Essentially there is preferring to rely on existing knowledge, or generating new

knowledge when new situations arise. This is called knowledge processing. The other way,

perspective, is the tendency to rely on the expertise of individuals—themselves or others.

Having plenty of diversity in both lines of thinking is key in having a successful team.

Pulling from existing knowledge means that a team can have a grounding in what has worked

outside of their efforts. Calling on individual’s expertise means that they can progress beyond

already-tread ground.

However in order to have both lines of thought, people have to be all right with being

seen as different. Which is not something many people are comfortable with. This can be helped

by the workplace culture however.

As for a time I’ve taken the lead, I have not very often. I have taken the lead on a couple

group projects—mostly because I was the one most aggressive about getting lines of

communication open. We generally got good marks. Another time I took charge would be when

I decided to run a Dungeons & Dragons game. I think that went well, while it lasted. My players
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had scheduling issues so that my initial five went down to two very rapidly, and then they started

not showing up. It fizzled out after a few months. In that instance I feel like the problem was

more that there was a lack of commitment. It was a game, but we still had agreed to set down a

few hours of our time to get together for it.

As in the article What Everyone Needs to Know About Running Productive Meetings

(Rousemaniere 2015) discusses, meetings can be a giant time sink. One way to avoid this is to be

strict about what kind of meetings you join. If the meeting would be rescheduled if you can’t

make it, then you shouldn’t go is a suggested benchmark. This keeps you from cluttering up your

schedule with meetings you don’t need to attend, as well as keeping the meeting from being

cluttered up with unnecessary personnel.

Another way to smooth out meetings, is to set an agenda. What, specifically, are you

trying to accomplish? Aim to accomplish that in as short a time as possible. Then the employees

will be free to get back to doing their actual jobs.

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Reynolds, A., & Lewis, D. (2017, September 20). Teams solve problems faster when they're
more Cognitively Diverse. Retrieved March 02, 2021, from https://hbr.org/2017/03/teams-
solve-problems-faster-when-theyre-more-cognitively-diverse

Rousmaniere, D. (2015). What Everyone Needs to Know About Running Productive Meetings.

Harvard Business Review Digital Articles, 2–5.