4 Ways to Build an Innovative Team
30 August, 2018 / Articles
One of the most common questions asked by senior managers is “How can we find more innovative people?” Most of us can conjure up the type they have in mind — someone energetic and dynamic, full of ideas and able to present them powerfully. It seems like everybody these days is looking for an early version of Steve Jobs.
Yet research indicates that most great innovators are nothing like the mercurial stereotype. In fact, almost all of them are kind, generous, many even soft-spoken and modest. Many might even go unnoticed in a crowded room.
So the simplest answer is that a business needs to start by empowering the people already in the organization. But to do that, it needs to take responsibility for creating an environment in which these people can thrive. That’s no simple task, and most managers have difficulty with it. Nevertheless, following a few simple principles can make a huge difference.
Hire for mission. Let’s imagine that a division manager isn’t performing the way her team wants her to. She isn’t necessarily bad. In fact, she’s well-liked by her staff, coworkers, and senior management. But she isn’t showing anywhere near the creativity required to take the business to the next level, so the decision is taken to ease her out of her position.
Then a funny thing happens. Having left the company, she becomes a successful interior decorator. Her clients love how she can transform a space with creativity and style. She also displays many of the same qualities that made her so well liked as a manager. She’s a good listener, highly collaborative, and focuses on results.
So why is it that someone could be so dull and unimaginative in one context and so creative in another? The simplest answer is that she is a lot more interested in interior decorating than she was in the business of her previous job. Researchers have long established that intrinsic motivation is a major component of what makes people creative.
The biggest misconception about innovation is that it’s about ideas. It’s not. It’s about solving problems. So the first step to building an innovative team is to hire people interested in the problems that need to be solve. If there is a true commitment to a shared mission, the ideas will come.
Promote psychological safety. In 2012 Google embarked on an enormous research project. Code-named “Project Aristotle,” the aim was to see what made successful teams tick. The company combed through every conceivable aspect of how teams worked together — how they were led, how frequently they met outside of work, the personality types of the team members — and no stone was left unturned.
However, despite Google’s nearly unparalleled ability to find patterns in complex data, none of the conventional criteria seemed to predict performance. In fact, what it found that mattered most to team performance was psychological safety, or the ability of each team member to be able to give voice to their ideas without fear of reprisal or rebuke.
It’s not just at Google. Harvard professor Amy Edmondson has documented the importance of psychological safety in a wide variety of contexts, from hospital teams to office furniture manufacturers. She found that it not only promotes a better atmosphere but also increases the capacity for learning and reduces the tendency to go down blind alleys.
Another study, done by researchers at MIT and Carnegie Mellon, found that teams in which people speak in roughly equal amounts far outperform those in which one or two people dominate the conversation. So those mercurial Steve Jobs types who are spouting off ideas so often that nobody can get a word in may in fact be killing innovation.
Interestingly, highly innovative teams can be safe for some ideas, but not for others. For example, two of the scientists at PARC, Dick Shoup and Alvy Ray Smith, developed a revolutionary graphics technology called SuperPaint. Unfortunately, it didn’t fit in with PARC’s vision of personal computing, the two were ostracized, and eventually both left.
Smith would team up with another graphics pioneer, Ed Catmull, at the New York Institute of Technology. Later they joined George Lucas, who saw the potential for computer graphics to create a new paradigm for special effects. Eventually, the operation was spun out and bought by Steve Jobs. That company, Pixar, was sold to Disney in 2006 for $7.4 billion.
Create diversity. Many managers hire with a specific “type” in mind, usually people who seem most like themselves. This may be great for creating camaraderie and comfort, but it is not the best environment for solving problems. In fact, a variety of studies have shown that diverse teams are smarter, more creative, and examine facts more thoroughly.
The problem is that by narrowing the backgrounds, experiences, and outlooks of the people on a team, the company is limiting the number of solution spaces that can be explored. At best, it will come up with fewer ideas, and at worst, it can run the risk of creating an echo chamber where inherent biases are normalized and reinforced.
In effect, by creating a homogenous team, the company is almost guaranteeing that the best answers will be found somewhere else. So instead of looking for comfort, it should be creating an environment where people expect to have their perspectives challenged by someone who looks, talks, and thinks differently.
The challenge for managers is to create an environment that is both diverse and psychologically safe. Evidence suggests that diversity often reduces cohesion which leads to discomfort. Any team can be safe when it is not being challenged. Great innovative teams learn to constructively work through these tensions.
Value teamwork. One of the most surprising things often unheeded by teams is how nice almost everyone is. One might expect many world-renowned scientists, executives, and entrepreneurs to be brash and arrogant, but quite often they are just the opposite.
In fact, these superior innovators frequently are friendly, gracious, and show a genuine interest and desire to help. This behavior is so consistent that it cannot be an accident, and research indicates that when it comes to innovation, generosity can be a competitive advantage.
The truth is a business doesn’t need the best people — it needs the best teams. The problems we face today are far too complex to be solved by a lone genius working in isolation. That’s why the best innovators tend to be knowledge brokers, who embed themselves into networks so that they can access that one elusive piece of insight that can crack a tough problem.
So the last thing a firm wants is the prototypical “innovative” personality spouting off a million ideas and breaking all the china. The aim is to get people who can collaborate, listen, and build strong networks. The good news is these people are most likely already within the organization. Don’t let them get drowned out.
The science man and innovator, Fernando Fischmann, founder of Crystal Lagoons, recommends this article.
