Leveraging Cognitive Skills for Team Success: Analytical and Creative Thinking

When conversations about the need for better analytical and creative thinking in your team evolve, the predominant thought that emerges for you as a manager can be, "Who could best bring these skills to the table?'" 

Instead of looking outward for fresh faces with better thinking skills, turning inward to nurture the critical thinking and problem-solving abilities of your existing team can yield significant rewards. Like any professional skill, cognitive skills can be nurtured and developed. Prioritising creating an environment that fosters the development of each member's analytical and creative capacities is essential.

A recent survey by the World Economic Forum highlights the paramount importance of cognitive skills. In the Future of Jobs Report 2023, analytical thinking and creative thinking topped the list of skills judged to be of the most significant importance to workers right now. They are also at the top of the list of skills needed in the future between now and the year 2027.

In this article, we will share the basic concepts that help managers like you, especially if you are working internationally or with diverse teams, start supporting your current team’s analytical and creative thinking. Understanding the different aspects that play into the team’s overall ability to use their skill set will help you foster an environment that allows your team to solve problems and make better decisions with fewer biases. 

Analytical Thinking: The Cornerstone of Problem Solving

Analytical thinking has rightfully claimed its position as one of the most essential skills for modern workers. In a rapidly changing world, where problems are increasingly complex, analytical thinking equips individuals and teams with the ability to deconstruct issues into manageable components. 

We all need the ability to make well-thought-out and informed decisions and craft effective plans and solutions. As a result, many managers assume that the key to harnessing the power of analytical thinking is to hire the right kind of talent, and the cognitive processes will inevitably flow. 

In practice, studies show that teams that function well perform better than individuals alone. Well-led diverse teams are the best performers: they can utilise different backgrounds, different ways of thinking, and different experiences. 

When harnessed within a team, analytical thinking is the cornerstone of problem-solving, ensuring that challenges are met with a structured and rational approach.

Creative Thinking: Innovation as a Team Asset

In a world where innovation is a driving force behind success, creativity within a team is a valuable asset. Creative thinking is about generating ideas and new approaches to problems from unconventional angles and infusing fresh perspectives into the team's decision-making processes. 

In a team, creativity can be fostered through psychological safety that allows each team member to express new ideas and perspectives. When members of a diverse team feel encouraged to approach problems or situations from different perspectives instead of playing it safe and falling into groupthink, they can bring all their potential into teamwork.

Creative thinking fosters a holistic problem-solving environment that encourages innovation and drives progress, especially when you have a lot of different perspectives and backgrounds to rely on.

Cognitive Diversity: The Catalyst for Team Success

While recruiting talent is not the only key to high performance, your recruitment strategy can help the team excel in problem-solving and decision-making in another way. Cognitive diversity is an indispensable advantage when it comes to making the most of hive thinking. 

Cognitive diversity refers to the differences in thinking patterns, skills, characteristics, and backgrounds that individuals bring to a team. In a world where analytical and creative thinking are paramount, diversity ensures that various viewpoints and approaches are considered. It's in the fusion of these different cognitive styles that high-performing teams find their strength.

Diverse teams also come across unique challenges, which often require leadership to know their own strengths and how their cultural backgrounds affect them as managers.  Tools like Global DISC analysis can be invaluable in highlighting how others see your management style and communication in those settings and understanding your team members' backgrounds better. 

When you are open to developing the working environment for your team and your own leadership style, cognitive diversity within the team becomes an advantage that can significantly enhance the team’s collective problem-solving capabilities. In the best case, you can find practices to support both the creative and analytical thinking capacity of your team and make the most of everyone’s potential. 

Most of us would agree that this all sounds great, but studies show companies, their leaders, and individual managers struggle to find the tools to bring this all into practice. So, where do you start?

Harnessing the Benefits Of Your Team’s Cognitive Diversity and Developing Cognitive Skills

The first thing to do to harness your team’s cognitive potential is to open up the communication channels and find the tools to measure your current situation. Paying attention to how your team thinks now and where the current pitfalls are in practice helps you decide what steps to take next. 

You may want to start by asking yourself (and your team) questions like:  

• Are your team members able to express their thoughts openly, and do they feel comfortable to be themselves in the team? 

• Who in your team makes the decisions, and who gets their ideas heard?
• Are you and the team aware of common biases that hinder critical thinking or effective decision-making? 

In one of our articles, we talked about how development from the group stage all the way through a team to a high-performing global team is demonstrated as a change in key characteristics of your team and how they collaborate. The same requirements apply when you focus on cognitive skills: you're not only looking at analytical and creative thinking skills but also the environment and whether everyone's potential is used in the decision-making and problem-solving processes. 

When you know the current stage your team is at, recognising the next goal and how to get there gets considerably easier.  As each team is different, knowledge about your own team is power, and measurement tools can be an incredibly valuable investment. Still, the process of finding the ones that suit your team and situation can be daunting. You want to find something that really works and keeps the momentum going once you start. 

We would prefer you discover the specific tool that meets your current needs instead of providing generic solutions that may or may not benefit your situation. Let us guide you through the process of finding the tools and training that suit your team and situation or the ones that work for you as part of your leadership development. Just book a free call with us here.

Once you have a good idea of where your team is at now, the real change comes from effectively utilising the potential of your team and the resources you have available. Even when you want to focus on thinking processes and cognitive skills, the three pillars of high-performance help you get results in your international team:

1. Cultural Competence: Recognizing and utilising diverse cultural strengths and problem-solving methods transforms differences within the team from liability into strengths.
2. Team Culture Development: Fostering a happy and productive team environment where unity and collaboration thrive so everyone can speak up and be part of the shared problem-solving process.
3. Enhanced Critical Thinking: Equipping your team with advanced problem-solving skills, preparing them to tackle today's complex challenges with fewer biases or pitfalls of groupthink.

You can also explore the practical tips in our articles and try them out with your team. Start from the ones in this article on Problem-solving strategies for international teams: from poor or mediocre to real value, and for creating a more engaged and unified team for problem-solving, consider implementing some of the 14 core tips for building interpersonal trust within your team.  Please share your outcomes and insights on the challenges you as a manager face in enhancing your team's cognitive abilities and fostering analytical and creative thought.

You can always reach us at [email protected] for any questions or comments, and if you would like to hear more about how we at InCultures can help you in this process, let us know or book a no-strings-attached call from our calendar.