在工作中激发创意的最佳途径

    今年2月，科技巨头IBM公司发布了BlueMix云平台，作为其征战云计算领域的杀手锏。这一平台向开发者提供了多种工具，为企业创建和运行新的应用。对于一个如此大型的项目来说，其完成速度之快简直异乎寻常。从初步构思、技术攻坚和设计，再到测试和展开营销，这一系列流程IBM团队仅仅用了18个月就完成了。

    此次BlueMix项目的带头人、IBM设计部的总经理菲尔•吉尔伯特认为，这样的高效率并非巧合。负责该项目的数十位工程师、开发人员和设计师分散在世界各地，他们甚至从来没有在现实生活中碰过面。“虚拟团队带来了思维的多样性。”吉尔伯特说，“一个运作良好的虚拟团队不仅可以获得更多创意，而且他们的创意往往更加出色和高效。”

    BlueMix的成功似乎并非侥幸。亚当•金格是伦敦商学院（London Business School）学习解决方案课程执行主任，他对制药、零售和银行业等120多家企业的团队进行过相关研究，还咨询过他们的管理者。“在创新和解决复杂的问题方面，虚拟团队的效果更好、速度更快。”他介绍说，“无论这些团队成员是来自公司的各海外办事处，还是在家通过网络远程办公，他们都有着同样出色的表现。”

    金格说，关键在于要运用BlueMix的方法进行头脑风暴。有些企业也把BlueMix的这种方法称为“创意脑力激荡（idea jam）”。这种方法并没有采用传统方式，通过远程会议或电话会议把所有团队成员召集在一起（无论成员身在哪个时区），而是提出或者阐述一个问题，让成员在一定时间范围内思考并发言（一般是48小时），采用的形式是留言板或者聊天室。

    金格表示，让人们按照自己的时间安排发表意见和评论，可以在很多方面产生“非凡的创意回响”。首先，这种情况下团队会更有活力。根据金格的观察，无论是办公室会议还是同时在线讨论，团队成员们“往往会赞同某个主导者的意见来维持一团和气——这个人可能是最资深的，或者仅仅是嗓门最大的，又或者是发言最具说服力的。”

    而开辟一个论坛让人们逐个参与讨论，“可以促使参与者根据各个创意的优点进行客观评估，而不是盲目听从某一位成员”。菲尔•吉尔伯特对此深表认同。即便自己创意更好，有些人也不好意思直接反对某个同事，而在匿名创意脑力激荡的环境下，这类人会变得更加勇于发表意见。金格认为，“这并不是和别人对着干，而是贡献不同的意见。”

    金格指出，这一点在那些性格内向的团队成员身上表现得更加明显。“性格内向的人通常会有一些高见，但是他们需要比较多的时间来整理思路。”他说，“在传统的会议中，他们可能无法获得充分的时间来思考。”如果给他们几天时间而不仅仅是几个小时来组织发言，那么性格内向者的发言就会更显分量，容易引起大家的注意。

    吉尔伯特补充说，当所有的团队成员全部集中在某个地方或者同时集中讨论，有时候“会出现集体趋同思考的倾向”。他说，因为BlueMix是一个全球性的平台，“我们故意让团队成员来自不同的洲，比如加拿大、印度、巴西和英格兰等等。所以，即便整个团队同时上线，他们的不同地理位置和文化背景也会带来很多不一样的想法。”他表示，这种方法有助于孕育创新，“不仅仅是激发多样化的创意，而且可以让这些创意独立形成，”吉尔伯特说，“最后往往会产生令人惊艳的结果。”（财富中文网）

    An essential part of IBM’s IBM -0.09% campaign to conquer cloud computing is a new product called BlueMix. Launched in February of this year, the platform offers developers tools to create and run new apps for business. Unusually for a project of its size, it came together fast. A team of IBMers took only about 18 months to build BlueMix from initial concept, through technical underpinnings and design, to beta testing and marketing.

    Phil Gilbert, Big Blue’s general manager of design, who led the BlueMix project, thinks it’s no coincidence that the dozens of engineers, developers, and designers who worked on it are scattered all over the world and have rarely, if ever, sat down with each other at the same time and place. “You get much more diversity of thought with virtual teams,” Gilbert says. “A well-run virtual team comes up with, not just more ideas, but better ones, and faster.”

    It seems BlueMix was no fluke. Adam Kingl, executive director of learning solutions at London Business School, has studied teams and consulted with managers at more than 120 companies, across a range of industries, from pharmaceuticals to retailing to banking. “When it comes to innovation or solving complex problems, virtual teams often get better and faster results,” he says. “And that is true whether you’re looking at teams in different office locations around the world, or teams that simply have some members telecommuting from home.”

    The key, Kingl says, is to brainstorm using the BlueMix approach, a technique some companies call an “idea jam.” Instead of a teleconference or conference call that brings everyone together (no matter what time zone they may be in), an idea jam poses a question or describes a problem and then gives the whole team a chance to weigh in online, typically over a 48-hour period, via a message board or chat room.

    Letting people make comments and suggestions on their own schedule contributes to “a meritocracy of ideas” in a couple of ways, says Kingl. First, the group dynamics are different. Whether in person or online all at the same time, team members “often agree with a dominant person—either the most senior, or simply the loudest or most persuasive—to keep the peace,” Kingl observes.

    By contrast, opening up a forum for discussion where people weigh in one by one “prompts the participants to evaluate ideas based on their merit, rather than deferring to one team member,” he says. Phil Gilbert agrees. People who might otherwise hesitate to disagree with a colleague directly—even if they have a better idea—are bolder in an asynchronous, idea-jam-type setting. “It’s not confrontational, more just contributing a different opinion,” he says.

    That’s especially true for teams with members who are introverts, notes Kingl. “Introverted people often have valuable insights to contribute, but they often take time to formulate their thoughts,” he says. “In traditional meetings, they may not get that.” With a couple of days to speak up, instead of a couple of hours, introverts are more likely to be heard.

    When team members are all together in one place or at one time, the result is sometimes “a tendency toward groupthink,” Gilbert adds. Since BlueMix is a global platform, he says, “we very deliberately put the team on every continent, in Canada, India, Brazil, England, and so on. So even when the whole group came together online, what had happened in between was very different because the locations and cultures were so different.” That approach breeds innovation, he says, by eliciting “not just diverse ideas, but independently developed ideas,” he says. “It can lead to great outcomes.”