How to Lead an Innovative Team
The importance of innovation to a company
Innovation is the live blood of modern corporations. In the past, authority, capital, natural
resource, efficiency, or monopoly can keep a company prosperous for generations.
Today, if a company stopss innovation, it will disappear in a short period time. There are numerous examples: WoolWorth, 3Com,
SUN, SAAB, Digital, Kodak, Silicon Graphics, etc. Innovation, defined as the process of
generating, selecting and implanting new ideas to useful products, make or
break a company, especially in high-tech industry.
The challenges of leading innovative teams
Today, new products might be started with one single
individual, but a successful innovation requires a highly effective team. How to manage such team, keep their
innovative juice flowing, but keep the project aligned with the corporate
vision, keep the cost under control, a manager has to be skillful and well versed
in best management practice. Over 80 percent of executives
surveyed believe innovation is important for their companies’ future
success, but less than 30 percent are satisfied with their current level of
innovation. This is referred as the “innovation gap.” Leading innovation can be especially hard for
former successful engineers and professionals which excel in carefully
following standard operating procedure and focus on his/her individual
achievements. Since most our students
are from professional backgrounds, it is particularly important for you to
learn and practice skills leading innovative teams.
Five secretes of leading innovative teams
Mangers directly influence whether a team is innovative or
not. They set and communicate the
strategic direction, allocate resource, incentivize desirable behavior and hire
the team members. Innovation will not
happen unless the management provides it with sustained tangible and intangible
support.
While there are copious advises on the web on this subject,
from my own experience and research, I summary them into the following five
strategies:
1.
Create a clear and flexible vision
People need vision to work hard. A team needs vision to work effectively
together. It is difficult to just tell the team members that “think outside of
the box”, or “sky is the limit”, and expect them to produce something
coherent. A team or a company need a
vision, clear and flexible, for
example, Google’s vision is “Organize the world’s information and make it
universally accessible and useful”, Amazon’s vision is “to be earth’s most
customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and
discover anything they might want to buy online.” Our vision is “to educate the
next generation of globally connected, ethical, effective high-tech leaders.”
With a clear and flexible goal, team know where is apply their innovative
ideas.
2.
Build and support an innovative culture
Companies’ operations usually focus
on precision, efficiency, planning, and risk avoidance. Yet most these great
values of operation excellence often hinder innovation. To be successful in innovation, the manager
should let the entire organization know that innovation is encouraged, trying
new approach is be celebrated, failure is acceptable as learning experience. The senior managers should know that
innovation more than often are generated by younger, in-experienced members, so
the manager’s role in innovation should be support, monitor, mentor, but
probably not drive it or lead it. The
executive should regularly and clearly praise the innovative projects.
3.
Provide and promote innovative support
Having a Culture of innovation is crucial
to start the innovation process, but it is not sufficient to complete the
circle. Innovative company allocate
tangible resource to support innovation.
Many companies, including Google, let all employee spend 20% of their
time on any projects that support the company vision. They set up separate innovation or
“intrepreneur” funds, allow any department to proposal new ventures. They let
small teams to work on innovation separate from their typical location and
avoid standard accounting and efficiency and stand operating procedures. Many
company include innovation as part of their executive development curriculum.
4.
Attract and keep innovators
While anyone and learn to be more
innovation, there are people that have innate capability and drive to be
innovative. These people, usually in
their twenties or early thirties, seek company that allow them to have certain
level of autonomy even the financial compensation might not be the highest. They are looking for organization where
innovation, learning, diverse ideas and flexibility are valued above
efficiency. They flock to metropolitans that support rich social
connections. That is why many fortune
500 companies set up R&D center, filled with fresh college graduates, in
major cities away from their head quarters.
5.
Empower the innovation team
Once an innovative project is
formally selected, a diverse, closely nit, mutually trusted, dedicated team is
required to implement. The innovation
team should be running similar to a start-up, allowed to change ideas, work
flexible hours, explore new markets, revise team-members roles, establish
strategic alliance. They should have
do-or-die and strong team spirit. Their
accountability should be reviewed on a start-up venture basis, not from an
established operation point of view.
When IMB started the PC project, they empowered the 12 people team
fully, sent then as far away as Florida so they won’t be bounded by establish corporate
rules.
Why it is important to US
We not only teaches innovation and discuss innovation in
many of the courses. We also practice
the innovation strategies. It is import to our students and graduates to learn
and practice these strategies also, even while they are still studying for
their degree. To be a high-tech leader, is to be a leader of innovation.
