Sunday, December 4, 2011

Overlead

Overleader(O) : Guys, let's all work together and do this task in a fast and effective manner
Team-members (T) : As opposed to...er...go on.
O : Let's look at what the task is before jumping into action, alright? We've been asked to come up with a tagline for a brand of soap
T : So let's each come up with one option and vote on the best one.
O : I'm afraid that's not the correct approach at all. Let's all discuss in an open manner first.
T : Ok, you suck.
O : I meant about the task. What is the soap trying to convey? Come on, people. We can do this if we work together. What is the soap's message? One by one, who's with me? Who wants to go first?
T : How about 'kills germs' as a tagline? That worked on me when I bought one last week. 'No more stains'? Yes, that sounds better.
O : Let's split up into teams of 2 so that one person can ideate and the other can be a sounding board. Let's take 10 minutes to come up with some options. I will moderate the one-on-ones so that they are productive. Questions? Questions? All on board?
T : 'Smells like' something? Flowers? Sunshine sounds nice. Smells like sunshine
O : Creativity also follows a process. Let's ensure we aren't missing anything. Calm down, people. Let's do this. Who is our audience? It's important to...
T : Are we all agreed on 'smells like sunshine'? Yes?
O : Let's revisit this while we still have time...
Facilitator : (Trriiiing) Time's up
O : Our team has come up with a tagline
F : What are your learnings?
O : We took time to get aligned to the task at hand. But the articulation of the vision made course correction possible. On the personal front, I realised how hard it is to wear two hats, to be a creative contributor as well as the leader of the group. But I guess that comes with the territory. A leader has to...
T : When's the tea break?