Good team leaders understand that brainstorming is vital in a team that is to perform properly. It is during these sessions that they can find new perspectives and ideas on how to resolve different challenges. In turn, they can use this to innovate the company as a whole. And thanks to crowdsourcing software for business operations, brainstorming sessions don’t even have to be done face to face anymore. It builds on what is known as “social capital”, which is the combined knowledge, experience, and judgement of each individual staff member.
Social Capital Is a Resource You Can Depend on
You need to see each employee as a social capital that has to be accessible by everybody. Social capital is one of the most important resources available within an organization, as recognized by prominent sociologists. Social resource is present in communities as well, where this is perhaps better explained. Imaging knowing that your neighbor will always look out for your child. This means you always have social capital available to you that someone in a street without such neighbors does not have.
Social Capital Is Everywhere all the Time
If you were to hold a brainstorming session, you can only access the social capital that is present during the brainstorming session, meaning it is linked to a certain space and time. If you were to have a session at 10am on Wednesday in the conference room, for instance, then anyone who already has a prior engagement cannot be involved and this means you miss out on social capital. By installing crowdsourcing software, however, you no longer have to arrange places, dates, and times. You simply ask the question and everybody has the opportunity to brainstorm about it when they are ready. Keyboard brainstorming may sound a bit too digital for your liking, but it is the way of the Millennials and they are starting to make up the largest proportion of the workforce.
Digitization Brings Out the Introvert
There’s another major issue with traditional brainstorming sessions. You may, as many managers do, have set a specific time, date, and time for your brainstorming sessions and expect everyone in your team to be present and to not have other appointments at that time. However, having everyone together in one room does not mean everybody will share their ideas. The introverts in your team will be reluctant to speak up for fear of ridicule, or simply because they are drowned out by the extroverts who don’t know when to keep quiet. When you have a digital process through crowdsourcing software, however, everyone has the opportunity to contribute. Even the biggest introvert will be listened to, and people can discuss issues at the same time as the talkative extrovert.
Clearly, your social capital is key to ensuring your organization remains innovative. To engage that capital, you need to offer digital processes that are open and transparent, thereby encouraging everyone to take part in the process as a whole.
