DQ Discussion - Week 8 Top Of Form Discussion Shared Practic ✓ Solved

DQ Discussion - Week 8 Top of Form Discussion: Shared Practice

There may come a time when you have to lead an important effort or initiative in your organization. This week's Discussion puts you in such a place where you are asked to work with a team to develop an innovative customer loyalty program. The challenge is to develop a plan that lays out a process whereby the team has the support necessary to create ideas, evaluate solutions, and implement an innovative program. As you consider the steps you will take to develop your plan, recall the ten fatal flaws that can derail leaders outlined by Zenger and Folkman (2009) and the ways leaders can inhibit creativity discussed by Amabile and Steven (2012).

Imagine that you have been hired recently as a new manager of an auto-dealership that sells new and pre-owned vehicles. You work for Kendrick Auto Group, which owns 27 dealerships in the region. The owner has tasked you with experimenting at your dealership to create a new, effective, and unique customer loyalty program. The current loyalty program is merely imitative of other competitor programs and the owners see an opportunity to create a distinctive organizational strategy that will separate their dealerships from those of the competitors.

As the manager of the dealership, your staff includes sales consultants who show vehicles to potential commercial and individual buyers, financial staff who assist buyers with payment plans, extended warranties, maintenance plans, and loans, and parts and service technicians who help repair and maintain vehicles on the lot and purchased by customers. With these thoughts in mind, post an organized plan for how you intend to employ the creativity of your staff to create a new and innovative customer loyalty program.

Your plan should not describe a customer loyalty program such as an extended warranty or a maintenance plan. The idea is to develop a team with a diversity of creative thinking styles from your staff (ideators, clarifiers, developers, and implementers).

Be sure to include:

• How you would bring a team together and lead them to start such an initiative.
• The tools that you have used in this course (design thinking, creative-thinking styles, etc.) to get your team to leave its comfort zone and begin to generate potential ideas.
• Explain how the thinking style diversity or lack thereof of your team could potentially help or impede the plan.
• The techniques you and the team could use to filter/evaluate potential ideas (diverggent/convergent thinking) to create a viable customer loyalty program strategy.

Use the resources from this week and from throughout the course to support your plan.

Paper For Above Instructions

Introduction

In today’s competitive business environment, creating an innovative customer loyalty program is crucial for building lasting relationships with customers. As the newly appointed manager of Kendrick Auto Group, I am tasked with developing a distinctive customer loyalty program that stands apart from those offered by competitors. This endeavor involves harnessing the creativity of my diverse team to brainstorm and implement innovative ideas that enhance customer engagement and retention.

Bringing the Team Together

To initiate this project, I will bring together a cross-functional team composed of sales consultants, financial staff, and service technicians. This collaboration will ensure diverse perspectives and ideas. I will organize a kickoff meeting where I will emphasize the shared vision of developing a unique loyalty program that differentiates us from competitors. Establishing open communication channels is vital; therefore, I will create a collaborative platform where team members can share ideas freely without fear of criticism.

Leading the Team

As a leader, my role will be to facilitate discussions and encourage creative thinking among team members. I will employ design thinking methodologies, which emphasize empathy and customer-centric approaches, to guide our brainstorming sessions. Additionally, I will utilize creative-thinking tools such as mind mapping and the SCAMPER technique to encourage diverse thought processes. These methods will foster an environment where the team can step out of their comfort zone and explore innovative ideas.

Diversity of Thinking Styles

The team’s diversity in thinking styles is a significant asset. By including ideators, clarifiers, developers, and implementers, we can leverage each member’s strengths to produce a comprehensive loyalty program. However, it is essential to manage potential challenges that may arise from differing viewpoints and ideas. For instance, some team members may focus excessively on practical implementations, while others may prefer exploring bold concepts that may initially seem unfeasible. I will facilitate discussions that integrate these varied perspectives to ensure a balanced approach.

Filtering and Evaluating Ideas

To determine the most viable ideas for the loyalty program, we will employ both divergent and convergent thinking techniques. Initially, we will use divergent thinking to generate a wide array of ideas without judgment. This creative phase will allow team members to contribute freely. Once we have a substantial list of potential ideas, we will transition to convergent thinking, where we will evaluate and filter these ideas based on feasibility, cost-effectiveness, and alignment with our brand values.

Techniques such as the dot voting method will help us prioritize ideas based on team consensus. Each member will be given a set number of votes to distribute among their preferred ideas, allowing us to gauge the team’s collective interests. Furthermore, group discussions following the voting will ensure that all ideas are critically evaluated before a final selection is made for prototype development.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the development of an innovative customer loyalty program at Kendrick Auto Group depends largely on the effective collaboration of a diverse team. By fostering an environment of creativity and open communication, leveraging varied thinking styles, and using structured techniques for idea evaluation, we can create a program that not only enhances customer loyalty but also positions our dealerships as leaders in the market. This initiative will not only benefit our business but also foster a culture of innovation that empowers our staff to continue contributing creatively in all areas of operations.

References

• Amabile, T. M., & Steven, J. (2012). The fantastic potential of creativity in organizations. Harvard Business Review, 90(5), 20-22.
• Zenger, J. H., & Folkman, J. (2009). The extraordinary leader: Turning good managers into great leaders. McGraw-Hill.
• Brown, T. (2009). Change by design: How design thinking creates new alternatives for business and society. HarperBusiness.
• Schön, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. Basic Books.
• Robinson, K. (2011). Out of our minds: Learning to be creative. Capstone.
• Lockwood, T. (2010). Design thinking in business. Design Management Review, 21(2), 6-8.
• Osborn, A. F. (1963). Applied imagination: Principles and procedures of creative problem-solving. Scribner.
• Cross, N. (2011). Design thinking: Understanding how designers think and work. Bloomsbury Publishing.
• Glover, J. A., & Hughes, M. (2017). The creativity challenge: How to build an innovative workplace. Springer.
• Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996). Creativity: Flow and the psychology of discovery and invention. HarperCollins.