Solving a jigsaw puzzle as a team

Have you ever worked in a really collaborative manner with 1 or 2 other people on a jigsaw puzzle?

Before I did work on my understanding of communication my style was more isolated and self centred when building out a jigsaw puzzle. I would be silent in what kind of problem solving approach I was taking to do my part of the jigsaw puzzle.

But when you consciously make yourself open to giving and receiving - being in a ‘flow’ state then it becomes possible to work much faster on a jigsaw puzzle quickly.

Solving jigsaw puzzles involves all sorts of different problem solving. Here some typical strategies:

• Finding edge and corner pieces

• Building out a line

• Focusing on a particular uniquely coloured area

• Getting very systematic about the shapes of pieces - as needed for dealing with mono colour areas like blue skies

By regularly and clearly communicating with your team around a jigsaw process it signals to the other team members what you need and how they can help. If I say I am building a large red dot - then when other people finding pieces that are red - they can give them to me.

Building a product/service is like working on a jigsaw puzzle. Your team needs to open to communicate with customers in a collaborative respectful ways. Customers need to be educated how to be kind and respectful in explaining their needs. Your team needs to become good and listening and clarifying and understanding the deeper needs and therefore finding good long lasting solutions to the needs of the customers.

Overall there needs to be clear goal that everyone is working towards and clear communication within a team as to how they get there.