We all face a lack of progress, or a block, from time to time.  Despite our best efforts, ‘stuff’ has managed to get in the team’s way and the goal becomes tantalisingly out of reach.  Of course there are so many potential contributors to this, from our own self-limiting beliefs (really not sure I/we can do this) thro’ organisational barriers such as policies (we want you to innovate, just do it in line with the policy) to just a pure and simple creative block.

Even the most talented amongst us have encountered creative blocks from time to time that have led to delays in producing their work.  David Bowie famously talked about his ‘cut up technique’ to create lyrics in a different way in order to make progress and Maya Angelou is on record about how she overcomes writer’s block simply by writing even if “it might be the most boring and awful stuff” to get her beyond the wall.  In the art world, Berlioz took Opium for creative stimulation and Van Gogh resorted to Absinthe.

Now I’m not big in favour of artificial stimulants in the workplace (possibly excepting the caffeine boost before I began this article) but I do think that methods of switching thought processes in order to get out of a creative rut can be a fantastic way of making progress.  I was inspired this week after sorting out my bookcase and unearthing my Oblique Strategy Cards designed by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt in the 1970s.  The cards each contain an individual and cryptic phrase or suggestion that can be used to think differently in order to re-energise and re-gain momentum.  So, with a humble nod to their work, here are a few suggestions for regaining momentum within teams:

1.    Try switching roles.  Why confine team members solely to their job description when an opportunity to have a fresh set of eyes look at a problem from a different perspective can make a difference?  I love how instead of being defined or constrained by his official team position, the talented German footballer Thomas Müller described himself not as a Forward or a Midfielder, rather as an “interpreter of space”.  Discover how you can align people with their energy for making an impact by exploring The Game Changing Index.

2.    Invite your Plants in.  We’re talking Belbin Plants of course, rather than your common or garden leafy variety.  The Plant name was given because you can literally ‘plant’ these people into any situation to help with creative ideas and problem solving – it is their forte and where they come into their own – find your organisation’s and let them help to re-energise your debate.

3.    Move the goalposts.  You don’t need to go so far as moving to a different pitch so to speak, but remember when you were small and the goalposts could be wherever you wanted them to be?  They were just piles of sweaters at the end of the day, but the flexibility meant that you were able to keep playing even if something or someone else got in your way.

4.    Mix it up.  Write down the problem you are trying to fix, put it on the wall surrounded by all of your brainstorming notes (presuming you’ve already tried to use brainstorming to find a way forward) then go out to lunch.  Ask someone from another team to randomly re-order everything whilst you are out so that when you return, you are literally looking at the problem through a different lens.

Disrupting established thought processes is a healthy practice in a learning organisation.  Give it a try