Distributed to Leadership and Work
Here’s How I Use Cross-Pollination at Work.
How to share and interchange ideas for high-performing teams in transforming business environments
Purpose of the Article
In this article, I highlight the value and importance of cross-pollination for high-performance teams in transforming the business environment. I’d like to share a simple example that helped transform a competitive, rigid, and difficult culture into a pleasant learning environment.
What is Cross-Pollination?
Cross-pollination is a metaphor taken from botany. The literal meaning of it is the transfer of pollen from plant flowers with different DNA, which enable the creation of new types of plants carrying different attributes.
Cross-pollination is a powerful metaphor for understanding diversity's importance in creating fusion in the workplace. I introduced the fusion principles and their importance in a previous article.
The metaphor of cross-pollination refers to sharing and interchanging of ideas, thoughts, information, and tacit knowledge for the enrichment of team capabilities.
One of the critical benefits of cross-pollination in the workplace is maintaining continuous learning.
The deliberate use of cross-pollination can create a pleasant learning environment.
We learn faster and more effectively when the environment is non-threatening and supportive.
This perspective is well supported by prominent adult learning theories, as the attached article covers.
The practical implementation of cross-pollination can occur using the mentoring approach.
I see mentoring as a journey of shared discovery in the workplace.
As a mentor and protégé simultaneously, I learned new ideas, improved my skills, gained new perspectives, and developed sustainable working relationships.
Cross-pollination can be implemented using various techniques and tools. For example, cross-pollination can happen using Design Thinking workshops. These workshops bring technical, business, and user communities into a room and help the team members develop creative ideas, new approaches, and novel knowledge constructs.
To enable cross-pollination in our teams, we need to re-architect the environment using established principles such as trust, personal responsibility, and collaboration. During this re-architecting process, we replace the following terms:
mistrust with trust
blame with responsibility
competition with collaboration
Reciprocity
From my observations in business environments, reciprocity plays a vital role in cross-pollination in high-performing teams. The insight I gained from reciprocity-focused culture was seeing support and favor as a privilege and returning the favor in a different and unexpected format. This innovative implementation of reciprocity appeared to make a substantial impact on the quality of working relationships.
Act of Kindness
In one of the creative teams, playing a game called “act of kindness” raised the team spirit and turned the workplace into a pleasant and trusted learning environment. In this game, each team member was giving creative kindness to their team members without expecting returns.
Since everyone in the team had this mindset and acted accordingly, the interchange was occurring naturally. Team members were giving without expecting.
More interestingly, the more they were giving, the more they received. As an ethnographic observer, I enjoyed this novel approach to reciprocity and shared the notion with other teams that needed it to improve work culture and performance.
The act of kindness and natural reciprocity were representing the wind analogy for cross-pollination to occur naturally.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.
Besides increasing the hormonal intelligence of my readers and writing about neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, GABA, and acetylcholine, one of my goals as a writer is to raise awareness about the causes and risk factors of prevalent diseases that can lead to suffering and death for a large portion of the population.
I aim to educate, create awareness, and empower my readers to take control of their health and well-being.
To raise awareness about health issues, I have written several articles that present my holistic health findings from research, personal observations, and unique experiences. Below are links to these articles for easy access.
Metabolic Syndrome, Type II Diabetes, Fatty Liver Disease, Heart Disease, Strokes, Obesity, Liver Cancer, Autoimmune Disorders, Homocysteine, Lungs Health, Pancreas Health, Kidneys Health, NCDs, Infectious Diseases, Brain Health, Dementia, Depression, Brain Atrophy, Neonatal Disorders, Skin Health, Dental Health, Bone Health, Leaky Gut, Leaky Brain, Brain Fog, Chronic Inflammation, Insulin Resistance, Elevated Cortisol, Leptin Resistance, Anabolic Resistance, Cholesterol, High Triglycerides, Metabolic Disorders, Gastrointestinal Disorders, and Major Diseases.
I also wrote about valuable nutrients. Here are the links for easy access:
Boron, Urolithin, taurine, citrulline malate, biotin, lithium orotate, alpha-lipoic acid, n-acetyl-cysteine, acetyl-l-carnitine, CoQ10, PQQ, NADH, TMG, creatine, choline, digestive enzymes, magnesium, zinc, hydrolyzed collagen, nootropics, pure nicotine, activated charcoal, Vitamin B12, Vitamin B1, Vitamin D, Vitamin K2, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, N-Acetyl L-Tyrosine, and other nutrients to improve metabolism and mental health.
Disclaimer: Please note that my posts do not include professional or health advice. I document my reviews, observations, experiences, and perspectives only to provide information and create awareness.
As part of my creative non-fiction writing goals, I’d like to share a few stories that might warm our hearts with a bit of humor into weighty topics.
Sample Humorous Stories
Finally, After Burning Her House, Georgia Found Enlightenment
Hilarious Tips to Prevent Brain Atrophy and Keep the Gray Matter Giggling
8 Psychological Points I Had to Unlearn and Relearn the Opposite
Based on my writing experience and observations, I documented findings and strategies that might help you amplify your voice, engage your audience, and achieve your desired outcomes in your writing journey.
I publish my lifestyle, health, and well-being stories on EUPHORIA. My focus is on metabolic, cellular, mitochondrial, and mental health. Here is my collection of Insightful Life Lessons from Personal Stories.
You might join my six publications on Medium as a writer by sending a request via this link. 24K+ writers contribute to my publications. You might find more information about my professional background.
