Businesses often tout teamwork and creativity as essential ingredients for reaching organization goals. But how many organizations train their employees to work effectively and creatively in teams?

     All too few, according to Lisa Gundry, director of the Leo V. Ryan Center for Creativity and Innovation at DePaul University's Kellstadt Graduate School of Business.

     "I've talked to professionals from a wide range of fields in finance, marketing and management and one of the things they have in common is a lack of team-building skills taught at their organizations," said Gundry, an associate professor of management. "Teams are having trouble sharing ideas and as a result creativity is stifled. This is not good for the organization, especially at a time when good team collaboration is more important than ever before. Companies rely on teams to accomplish business goals. Employee rewards also are increasingly based on team performance."

     Gundry said that across industries, some companies have begun to take steps to help their teams reach a higher level of performance. Companies such as Southwest Airlines, Hewlett-Packard Co., Eastman Chemical Co. and Xerox are redesigning and training teams to stimulate new product and service ideas.

     For others still seeking resources to help them build high-performance teams, DePaul's Creativity Center will begin offering a unique seven-week certificate course in Creative Collaborating that will meet on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 1 to May 13. The course will teach the skills needed to communicate, collaborate and produce more creatively within teams.

     The program will use innovative exercises, including excursions outside the classroom, to help participants work on teamwork problems they have encountered. Most of the class work will take place in the Creativity Center on the seventh floor of the DePaul Center, 1 E. Jackson Blvd. There, DePaul management professors will help class members explore the behaviors necessary to nurture a creative environment, new principles for listening, communicating and collaborative problem-solving, ways to discover and create team trust and spread respect for individual contributions, and tools to inspire novel ideas.

      "The goal is to provide the building blocks and skills needed to create a powerful team environment," said DePaul Assistant Management Professor Jill Kickul, who will teach Creative Collaborating with Gundry. Kickul's areas of expertise include entrepreneurial strategy, leadership and group dynamics.

     The Ryan Center for Creativity and Innovation was launched two years ago to help individuals, businesses, government agencies and associations (as well as the university's faculty and students) enhance performance through hands-on creative discovery and innovative problem-solving approaches. Gundry said that nurturing creativity has become an important issue in the workplace, with a growing number of companies, such as DuPont, establishing creativity centers.

     DePaul's program, focusing on creativity within teams, is unique, said Laurie LaMantia, the former director of IdeaVerse, a Lucent Technologies creativity center. LaMantia is co-creator of the DePaul certificate program.

     "Creativity and innovation are the next frontiers in business," LaMantia said. "This program uses a comprehensive approach, focusing on all the tools that will help people to create an empowering, nurturing team environment. It will help teams tap into innovation and sustain it."

     For more information about the Creative Collaborating program, call DePaul's Management Development Center at 312/362-6780. The application deadline is March 15.