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Innovation Workflow

Watch the 37-second video summary and then read on for full details!

For several weeks we have been discussing the Wagile product development process. 

Wagile is a hybrid project management process that blends the discipline of a waterfall system (“W-”) with the adaptability of an agile process (“-agile”).  Customer orientation is a key component of Wagile. 

Like all project management approaches, Wagile follows four primary steps that link to team behaviors.  You can learn more about Wagile in our upcoming 2-hour course on 10 November (2-4 pm CST) and you can learn more about team behaviors in an article here.  The innovation workflow is described below. 

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Generate Ideas

The first step in any project is to define and describe the purpose of the effort.  It may be as simple as “freshen up the garden at my house” to as complex as “build a new petrochemical plant”.  Regardless of the scale of the project, we always start with defining the scope of work.  In innovation, we must also discover customer needs and identify potential product functions and concepts to address those needs. 

When you look around your organization, who is best suited to help generate ideas?  In the language of Team Dimensions, we call these folks “Creators”.  Creators enjoy coming up with new ideas and can formulate concepts that are interesting and creative.  Successful innovation teams balance Creators with other work styles to ensure they capture disruptive ideas. 

Build Support

Once we have generated an attractive product concept, the innovation workflow moves to gathering support for the idea.  This includes negotiating resources and investing in preliminary testing.  Other activities at this stage involve concept testing with potential customers to refine the idea.  A set of tools and an approach called Design Thinking is extremely beneficial at this stage.  You can learn about Design Thinking at our complimentary Q&A webinar on 11 November 2020.  Register here – spaces are limited so we can ensure an interactive discussion!

Team members called “Advancers” are skilled at generating product support at this phase.  Advancers split behaviors of capturing new ideas and putting them into a familiar context.  This is why we want to have team members that are exceptional at listening and promoting as part of the innovation team. 

Create the Project Plan

Some people are really good at planning.  Of course, we want these folks, who we call “Refiners” in Team Dimensions language, to layout the required work to accomplish project goals. 

As history teaches us, no project plan is perfect.  However, we do need to plan the work and convert customer needs into actionable tasks.  That is the real purpose in creating a project plan.  An added bonus of planning is that we are able to better anticipate risks and building quality to both the process and the product.  (Read more about Risk Analysis in a special download for the University of Houston Sustainable Energy Development course materials here.)

Execute the Work

We only earn revenue when we complete a project and commercialize the new product innovation.  We need to do the work of the project!  Team members will build and test the product at scale during the execution stage. 

Folks that are good at executing are usually good at troubleshooting.  Their behaviors are methodical and normative.  They can convert 2D drawings into functional, working equipment.  In Team Dimensions, we call the people that love to get their hands dirty “Executors”. 

Work Styles and Workflow

Successful innovation teams match the preferred work style of team members with the phase of the innovation workflow.  Employees are happiest – and most productive – when they are working on tasks they enjoy.  Each of us can stretch beyond our preferred work style (Creator, Advancer, Refiner, Executor) to do other tasks.  Yet we can accelerate the innovation process the most when we match preferences of work styles with workflows. 

Learn More

Recently, I discussed the benefits of the Team Dimensions model at the Texas ACMP Conference this year and with Chad McAllister on the Everyday Innovator podcast.  You can listen to the podcast here (about 30 minutes). 

When you join the Life Design Master Mind group, we will review your work style assessment in a confidential one-on-one coaching session and you will learn to apply Design Thinking skills to personal and professional decisions.  Register for the complimentary introductory session here (11 November 2020 at 11 am CST). 

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About Me

I am inspired by writing, teaching, and coaching.  I tackle life with an infusion of rigor, zeal, and faith.   It brings me joy to help you build innovation leaders.  Teresa Jurgens-Kowal is an experienced innovation professional with a passion for lifelong learning with a PhD in Chemical Engineering and an MBA in Computer and Information Decision Making.  My credentials include PE (State of Louisiana), NPDP, PMP®, and CPEM, and I am a DiSC® certified facilitator.  Contact me at [email protected] or area code 281 + phone 787-3979 for more information on coaching for entrepreneurs and innovators.

Routines for Innovation Teams

Last week, we discussed two key arenas for success with innovation teams – communication and the project charter.  Good communication is obvious in all areas of our lives, but we are often staggeringly inept at sharing information when needed by others.  The project charter is a critical guiding document for the team that lays out boundaries and constraints for the product development effort.  You can watch a short video on communication and charter here. 

While skills development is one of the biggest concerns for innovation executives and leaders, routines in innovation processes can build habits that drive success.  Many of the systems and processes in new product development (NPD) are detailed and sophisticated so that companies minimize risk and maximize ROI.  On the other hand, routines for project teams are simple and inexpensive with high returns. 

Rewards and Recognition

Most of us get up every day and go to work for a purpose.  We might say we need to earn money to pay the bills, but as creative professionals, our purpose in working is far deeper.  People drawn to innovation, design, and development work, value helping others and improving lives.  Hiring for Purpose is the first practice in the Initiation and Structure element of the Virtual Team Model (VTM). 

Element 1 of the Virtual Team Model

Human beings also want to reap rewards when we fulfill our purpose.  Creating a new product that makes it easier to do yard work or yield an increased throughput at the factory are achievements worth celebrating.  Recognition of successes in innovation is an important motivator for teams, especially when the challenges seem insurmountable. 

NPD teams can build rewards and recognition into their daily routines.  For example, daily stand-up meetings can also celebrate successes when goals are met, and tests are completed.  Innovation professionals can gather in an informal celebration at lunch after a successful gate review.  Displaying the first-run production batches in commemorative packaging builds morale and showcases the team’s efforts. 

Rewards and recognition should also include profit-sharing for the new product or business as well.  Profit-sharing and stock options are long-term rewards that encourage strategic development rather than quick hits.  Longer term rewards also demonstrate the organization’s commitment to learning and development for the innovation teams. 

Renewal

Too often, we are on the go all the time.  Because of the dedication to the purpose and mission of new product development, innovation professionals often put in long hours.  Especially during crunch times to meet critical deadlines and during commercial launches, team members work evenings and weekends, traveling away from their homes, families, and friends.  All of this go-go-go takes a toll. 

The Hullett Provincial Wildlife Area

Therefore, innovation teams must build routines of renewal.  It can be as simple as instituting walking meetings instead of sitting in stuffy conference rooms.  Renewal comes from relaxing the mind, body, and spirit. 

Japanese companies require a two-week vacation each year.  The reason is that you don’t really let go of your worries and concerns with just a few days away from the office.  But, in two weeks you have time to pursue a favorite hobby, breathe in nature, and rejuvenate your soul.  Renewal is also the reason that churches and universities offer sabbaticals.  The intensity of work in these professions – to help guide and educate others – must be balanced with personal renewal.  Sabbaticals give preachers and teachers an opportunity to clear their heads of day-to-day busyness and to focus on important messages. 

What is Your Innovation Routine?

Does your innovation team have routines beyond schedules and budgets cycles?  Do you recognize and celebrate all accomplishments?  Even the learnings that come from failure?  Do you reward teams with both financial and motivational honors?  Do you give your innovation professionals time for renewal?

Innovation is tough work.  If you face issues with too many failed projects and demotivated teams, consider adding routines of reward recognition and renewal.  Learn how at the complimentary Life Design Master Mind Q&A webinar on 21 October 2019 at noon CDT (1 pm EDT, 10 am PDT).  Register here.

Are Your Innovation Teams Struggling to Move Forward?

If your teams are struggling with cohesiveness and generating timely results, please join us on Friday, 6 September 2019 at 12 noon CDT for a complementary Q&A webinar on Building Effective Cross Functional Teams.  Everyone who attends the webinar receives a FREE work style assessment.

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3 Myths about Innovation Teams

As much as corporate leaders talk about the importance of innovation, they still complain about a lack of results.  Innovation is not magical nor is it easy.  Successful new product development (NPD) relies on deploying the right technology at the right time into the right market segment.  Complicating the situation even more is that you count on effective, cross-functional teams to ideate, design, develop, and sell the new products.  Yet building productive innovation teams requires leadership skills and temperance. 

Of course, lots of managers think that teamwork is easy – just pull together a group of people, tell them what to do, and then sit back waiting for the results.  Unfortunately, most of us have learned it’s not so easy to build and sustain effective, cross-functional innovation teams.  Let’s look at some myths of team building and how you can invert these assumptions to accelerate your innovation programs. 

Myth #1 – All Engineers are the Same

Or we could say all designers are the same and all marketers are the same and all salespeople are the same.  This myth is busted as soon as you consider your work colleagues on your existing and previous NPD teams.  We all know engineers who are extraverts, designers who are methodical, marketers who are analytical, and salespeople who are quiet and reserved. 

One way to better understand the work styles of your teammates and to build open communication is through the DiSC® Workplace assessment.  DiSC identifies a preferred work style for each team member:  dominant, influential, supportive, or conscientious.  While many engineers have a conscientious work style – with a preference for analytical, “heads-down” work – others are also dominant, influencing, and supportive.  The same goes for designers, marketers, and salespeople. 

When your team completes a DiSC assessment, it opens new conversations and builds camaraderie among the team members.  As an innovation team leader, you can match tasks and activities to the work style preferences of your team members.  When team members understand what drives motivation for others, productivity improves.  And when productivity improves, new products get to market faster spurring profitability.

Myth #2 – Everyone is Equal

Another assumption I see in my work with innovation teams is that managers assume everyone is equal.  As a Christian and as an American, I do believe everyone has equal opportunity, but not everyone has equal skill, nor should we populate an innovation team in exact percentages. 

Sometimes, managers make the assumption that if there are 100 hours of project work, then each of the five team members needs to 20 hours of work. Unfortunately, this situation is exacerbated by Myth #1 so that all the R&D work is assumed to be done by engineers and all of the marketing work to be done by the marketing department. 

Cross-functional teams increase the go to market rate and profitability of new products because the team members are not equal.  Each individual brings his or her own experiences to the team.  These experiences include successful and failed product launches in similar product categories, global customer knowledge, and lessons learned. 

The Team Dimensions Profile model teaches us that innovation projects go through stages of initiation, selling the idea, organizing for implementation, and actually designing and building the new product.  We rely more heavily on creative personalities to generate ideas at the front-end and more analytical work styles to organize and execute the project tasks near the back-end.  Cross-functional team members will find that as they understand which team members are “idea people” and which are “executors”, they will work together more effectively. 

Moreover, using a common vocabulary of our work style preferences can help moderate the pace of work. Creators are tasked to a higher degree when an NPD project is initiated but need to tamp down their style when operations and manufacturing decisions are made.  Understanding how each team member is unique – and not equal – enhances communication and improves the quality of new product delivery. 

Myth #3 – Teams Don’t Change

Unfortunately, I’ve met some very cynical managers in my time.  They assume that they’ve been saddled with a group of people to do work and that no one can change.  Carol Dweck describes this as a fixed mindset.  (Read my book review of “Mindset:  The New Psychology of Success” here.)

The fixed mindset assumes talent is given at birth and cannot ever change.  Knowledge is like a reservoir that empties over time and cannot be refilled.  In contrast, a growth mindset is one that cheers on failure for the sake of learning and praises baby steps because those baby steps will become leaps of knowledge in the future.  Great innovation leaders exhibit the growth mindset and challenge teams to find new ways of working.  One model of building effective, cross-functional teams is through the Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team®. 

In Five Behaviors, team members assess their levels of trust, conflict, commitment, accountability, and results.  They learn how their work styles influence their responses in different team situations and how to manage conflict in a healthy way.  Applying a growth mindset, teams learn new ways to commit to project goals and to achieve mutual accountability.  And over time, the needle moves on trust to demonstrate the building of an effective team innovation team. 

How Do You Bust Team Myths?

Innovation is critical to the success of every business.  The product life cycle is shrinking so that companies need to launch more and better products faster just to keep pace with global competition.  But managers often fail to build the appropriate infrastructure to support and nurture NPD teams. 

First, job titles are not reflective of a team member’s work style.  Use a DiSC assessment to understand and share work style preferences.  Team members learn new skills and can adapt to situations across the NPD life cycle better as they begin to understand each other at a deeper level.

Next, everyone is not equal at all times on every project.  Successful innovation teams capitalize on different skills at various points in the NPD process.  Creators are great at brainstorming ideas, advancers can sell the concept to executives and customers, refiners analyze and organize relevant processes, and executors design and build the new product.  Each unique team member contributes to the project based on his or her experiences in life lessons.  The Team Dimensions Profile helps the team recognize how each person can excel and help each other during the different stages of the product development life cycle.

Finally, people can change and want to grow and learn.  A fixed mindset will doom any innovation project to failure.  Instead, adopting a growth mindset and teaching the team about trust, conflict, and accountability will build cohesiveness, yielding tangible financial results. 

Learn more

Act now to improve the effectiveness of your cross-functional innovation teams.  Space is limited in our complimentary Q&A webinars on Building Effective Cross-Functional NPD Teams.  Part 1 is 31 July at 12:00 noon CDT covering Steps 1 and 2 in the process:  team member self-awareness and managing team behaviors.  Part 2 is 28 August at 12:00 noon CDT covering Steps 3 through 5 in the process:  team processes, team charters, and virtual teams.  You will be automatically registered for Part 2 when you register for Part 1.  Anyone who attends the Q&A webinar will have access to your choice of work style assessment (DiSC, Five Behaviors, or Team Dimensions). 

Learn firsthand how applying a growth mindset can improve cross-functional NPD team effectiveness.  REGISTER NOW – spaces are filling fast!

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Building Innovation Leadership

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Design Thinking Tools

Last week, I had the pleasure of presenting to the South Texas Section of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (STS AIChE) for the professional development hour.  I love to help people learn how to solve problems more creatively, so we discussed and practiced several different design thinking tools for innovation.  My thanks to Babak Rafienia (pictured here with me) for his high-level organizational skills, despite torrential rains and flooding in Houston on the night of the event.

Design Thinking Model

Design thinking is a collaborative and creative problem-solving methodology that helps individuals and teams find the best solutions by focusing on customer empathy.  The model is simple – two steps – identify the problem and solve the problem. 

However, we do iterate between a Discovery Stage and Define Stage to correctly identify the problem, and we cycle between creating multiple solution alternatives and evaluating them in the solving phase.  No new product development (NPD) team should ever go to the lab without clarifying a customer’s problem.  It is fun to invent new things, yet unless there is a market need for the technical solution, developers are just playing. 

Discovery

In the discovery stage we use tools like a customer journey map and a customer empathy map.  These design thinking tools help us to understand how consumers know that they have a problem, what they think and feel about the problem, and how they identify product and service solutions.  The customer journey map also involves following end-users past the point of purchase to understand how they feel about the product during use and at the end of its life cycle. 

Define

The define stage of design thinking clarifies the customer’s needs into a simple statement.  At the STS AIChE meeting, we practiced defining problems using noun/verb matching.  This tool increases collaboration and also encourages creative solutions.  It’s important to differentiate between complaints and problem statements.  You may never make a whiner happy, but you can design product solutions that address clear and simple problem statements. 

Example Affinity Diagram

Create

A fun and useful design thinking activity for an NPD team is to collect the problem statements from the define phase and categorize them using a mind map or affinity diagram.  In our practice exercise at STS AIChE, we used the example of disrupting airline travel by employing a variety of design thinking tools, including customer journey maps and noun/verb matching.  Our affinity diagram showed some key categories of improving the waiting areas before boarding a flight and enhancing seating on the airplane itself.  The next step (Evaluate Phase) would be to generate and test simple prototypes of say, larger and lighter standing seats (one idea from our session). 

Design Thinking Tools

You can use design thinking tools to address a lot of different situations and problems.  The benefit of design thinking tools is that they are fast and easy to use, they build collaboration, and enhance creativity.  You focus on the end-user’s needs from a qualitative perspective ensuring that you build empathy for the customer. 

Act now

Our discount rate for Life Design Master Mind ends on 17 May 2019.  In Life Design Master Mind, you will learn how to apply design thinking tools to your own situation – whether that is growing the skills of your NPD team or to making a decision to go back to school or change jobs.  Give me a call at area code 281 phone 280-8717 if you want to review the Life Design Master Mind Q&A webinar recording from April.  Sign up here for Life Design Master Mind 17 May 2019 to get the upfront discount! 

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Job Crafting to Increase Creativity

Working as product, project, and engineering managers, we often balance quality with deadlines.  Product concept tests must be completed before the engineer designs for the plant can be locked in. Customer testing – while ongoing – must be limited by budgets and workforce availability.  

These trade-offs are frustrating to both managers and new product development (NPD) team members alike.  Too many project boundaries can constrain innovation, yet infrequent or fuzzy milestones can delay a market launch.  NPD managers ask their team members for both rigorous adherence to schedules and budgets and creative, out-of-the-box problem-solving.

One solution to improve the trade-offs that are inherent in a complex innovation project is to increase the role of job crafting.  Job crafting is a set of tools that allows team members to frame their work to capitalize on their most important skills, to increase learning and engagement.

Job Enhancement

Enhancing a job typically means adding horizontal tasks to improve the skill sets of the worker.  To a point, job enhancement will improve employee motivation.  But job enhancement sometimes means just adding more tasks without re-balancing the staff’s existing job responsibilities.  Managers have good intentions in expanding a team member’s work, including learning and growth, increased exposure, and skill development.

Years ago, in one of my earlier assignments as an engineering manager, I specifically sought job enhancement for a star employee.  Darcy, as I’ll call her, was a smart engineer, had great interpersonal skills, and was dedicated to her work.  Knowing that the performance ranking system at the corporation was treating her (and many others) unfairly, I wanted to improve her potential and give a new opportunity to showcase her competency as an engineer.  To that end, I assigned Darcy to lead a small, customer-focused research study.  As the project lead, she would gain visibility with senior management and would be able to demonstrate skills in which I knew she excelled.  Compared to her peers, Darcy was best positioned to successfully deliver the results of the research study.

To my chagrin, Darcy responded negatively when I offered her the opportunity to lead the research project.  What I thought was a job enhancement, she interpreted simply as “more work”.  At the time, I didn’t know she was attending night school to get an MBA and was also trying to start a family.  Of course, any “job enhancement” in those circumstances would be viewed as “more work.”

Job Crafting

A better alternative to job enhancement is job crafting.  Job crafting allows team members to select the majority of their work tasks based on their likes and dislikes, anticipated learning opportunities, personal career trajectories.  When you allow your team members to work on what they like and what they choose, creativity and motivation skyrocket. 

At first, many managers think that job crafting will leave them with no one to do the steady, boring work like printing and sending invoices, conducting sales calls, or bookkeeping.  Yet, everyone is different and while a Type A personality team member wants to press ahead on a new technical product design, a quiet detail-oriented team member is happy to immerse herself in the statistical analysis of big data.  Together, these team members can tackle all the necessary tasks for an innovation project to reach completion, on-time and on-budget.

Agile Teams

This collaborative approach to NPD is precisely called out in the agile philosophy.  Working as generalist-specialists, the agile NPD team will take on product development projects with a high degree of motivation that is driven from within themselves.  The generalist-specialist on an agile NPD team will work on whatever tasks are necessary to complete a sprint and will do the “heads-down” work of his or her specialty to ensure overall team success.  Collaboration among team members wand with the customer is easy because the generalist-specialist desires to learn new skills and is inspired by the project rather a self-serving ego.

It is natural for an agile team to craft their jobs according to skills and competencies and to do tasks that give them joy.  These types of teams have higher rates of output and their work is more creative as a result of the deep trust and collaboration.

Another characteristic of agile teams is the determination to complete a project for the benefit of the customer.  An agile NPD project is continually driven by customer needs which are tested and validated throughout the product development life cycle.  Rapid concept and prototype testing is used to weed out bad ideas and to ensure customer needs are properly incorporated into the product design requirements.  Frequent customer interaction leads to better designs, faster time-to-market, and higher market share upon product launch.

Job Crafting for Innovation

Successful innovations require a clear understanding of customer needs, good market timing, and excellent design of product and service features.  To generate successful innovation, NPD teams must be motivated, creative, and collaborative.  Allowing team members to craft their work assignments within the NPD project boundaries leads to greater success.

Job crafting is different than job enhancement (as I learned the hard way).  In the latter case, managers try to motivate and engage team members by expanding their roles and responsibilities.  And while job enhancement can increase team engagement, the most motivated and inspired workers are ones that craft their daily work to use skills that they value most.  Team members that craft their own jobs, as in an agile project management environment, are more creative and inspired.  Project work is balanced among team members with different skills and desires.

Learn More

To learn more about job crafting and agile NPD, please join me and other inspired and creative innovation workers in a master mind group where we exchange ideas and hold each other accountable to achieve the highest level innovation goals.  We are currently accepting new applicants to the Life Design Master Mind group with a new cohort starting 21 May 2019.  The discounted upfront payment ends soon, so you’ll want to join soon to learn how to apply Design Thinking tools to craft your own best job!  Contact me at area code (281) plus 280-8717 or at [email protected] for more information.  

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What Does Diversity Mean for Innovation?

Innovation often means success or failure for a company.  Organizations need to create new products and services to maintain relevance in the marketplace.  Customers and other stakeholders view innovation as driving new features and functionalities that ultimately support profitability for a firm.

Just as customers and clients are diverse, innovation teams need to be diverse.  An interesting paper in the Journal of Product Innovation Management (JPIM, Vol. 35, 2018) describes four different categories of diversity related to new product development (NPD).  And it may surprise you that what we typically consider as measures of diversity can actually hinder innovation team effectiveness.

Job-Related Diversity

in their paper, Weiss et al., define “job-related” and “not job-related diversity”.  In the first category are team member differences regarding education, work experience, and organizational functions.  In contrast, not job-related diversity includes demographics, geographies, and value systems. Much of the general literature on teamwork has focused on not job-related diversity; however, research on creativity and innovation has examined job-related diversity to a greater degree.

Surface versus Deep Levels of Diversity

Diversity traits are also categorized by the ease with which another individual can view or discern them.  For example, demographic diversity is a surface characteristic since we can usually discern age, gender, or race easily.  Likewise, education and organizational function are readily determined for most team members and is often part of socialization, forming a team, or standard team-building activities.  

Deep diversity traits, on the other hand, require interaction in relationship with another party to be fully revealed.  And in some work situations, a person’s closely held values may be strictly guarded and not revealed to others.  These characteristics include personality and preferred working styles such as openness to experience, degree of introversion/extroversion, or level of power and achievement.  Deep personal values are not job-related yet strongly impact how an individual behaves and interacts with other team members.

Deep job-related traits include cognitive diversity and interaction styles such as knowledge, skills, and thinking and communication styles.  A brief encounter or low-level working relationship cannot reveal deep job-related diversity characteristics.  However, on an innovation team with open and honest dialogue, these deep diversity traits, such as thinking and communication styles, may be revealed over time.

Which Traits Lead to Innovation

According to the review by Weiss et al., surface level, not job-related diversity traits can hinder innovation productivity.  People may immediately form stereotypes when thrown together into a team composed of people based on demographics alone, for example.  Here, the differences outweigh the benefits and people will drift toward others more like themselves.   This can lead to intra-team conflicts since there may be a lack of goal or purpose for the diversity of the team toward a working relationship.

For benefits of diversity to be captured, innovation teams need to build on job-related diversity more than just surface characteristics.  While geographic diversity (a surface trait that is not job-related) can enhance local market understanding for an innovation team, job-related diversity plays a larger role in team productivity.  Cross-functional teams face challenges in communication due to jargon, terminology, and norms.  If not addressed properly, diversity in function can actually harm the efficiency and productivity of an innovation team.  However, when team purpose, knowledge sharing, and conflict management processes are established through training and application, team collaboration is supported.

Of course, this doesn’t surprise me.  In my chapter on Virtual Team Models in PDMA Essentials 3, I describe key practices for the team leader to reinforce the common purpose of the team, communication methodologies, and tools for knowledge sharing that enhance gaps for dispersed teams.  It is only with deliberate attention to, and understanding of, individual and cultural differences that a team can build a cohesive group working style to achieve innovation success.  

Working Styles

Finally, much work has been done to help individuals raise their self-awareness in working styles.  The DiSC® assessment, for instance, allows people to learn about their preferred working style and to test interactions with team members of different working styles.  Of course, when dealing with a deep, job-related diversity trait, team members must learn to trust one another, compromise, and forgive mistakes.  Another great starting point for innovation teams is the Team Dimensions Profile which looks at the team members’ focus on possibility versus reality and the desire to interact or analyze.  The Team Dimensions Profile then shows the distribution of working styles to build communication, collaboration, and conflict management strategies that improve innovation outcomes.

Why is Diversity Important to Innovation?

Innovation relies on satisfying customers with different wants and needs.  Marketing messages must balance functional characteristics of a product with the emotional needs of end-users.  An NPD team with diverse perspectives can best identify with the broadest set of customer needs and is well-suited to designing and developing products for the highest levels of customer satisfaction.  

Yet, as researchers have learned, team diversity is not just an observable surface trait.  An effective innovation team must tackle diversity from a deep level of job-related traits such as knowledge, skills, and working styles.  Understanding our differences allows us to generate communication patterns that yield improved efficiency and productivity for innovation.

Learn More

I love to help innovation team succeed.  If you want to learn more about the Team Dimensions Profile, view a sample report, or learn more about Workplace DiSC, please contact me at [email protected]  I’m also offering a 15% discount on a standard bundle of Design Thinking and Agile NPD courses for the 22nd to 24th of April 2019.  Use code “bundle” at checkout.  Design Thinking provides a fabulous set of tools to increase diversity in communication with your end customer in mind.

If you want to learn more about developing a strong virtual team, you need to register for one of the Virtual Team Model courses right away!  Some other tools for leaders of innovation teams include the Situational Team Leadership group activity and assessing the creativity of your team with a Team Dimensions Profile.  Contact me at [email protected] or 281-280-8717 for more information on innovation, project management, and leadership training or coaching.  I love helping individuals, teams, and organizations achieve their highest innovation goals!

Stop by and Say “Hi”

Are you attending the Texas Open Innovation Conference in Houston on 28 March?  I’d love to chat with you.  Also, I am speaking on open innovation and design thinking at the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Spring Meeting in New Orleans on 1 April (Management Division).  And, I’ll be at the Bay Area SHRM Conference on 4 April 2019 in Friendswood, Texas.  And, get ready for the PDMA conference in Orlando in November!  I’ll be sponsoring a booth at the conference and would love to meet you in person!

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Overuse of Teams and Leadership?

My main business focus is on innovation and project management.  Over the years, I have noted that the word “innovation” is often over-used.  Unfortunately, the words “team” and “leadership” are also often mis-used or abused.

What is a Team?

Teams are groups of people, bound together by a common purpose to create a specific outcome or result.  Each member of the team has unique characteristics and skills.  The team could not accomplish its results without the varied inputs of the members.  In other words, the whole is greater than the sum of the individuals.

Sports teams are natural examples.  A football team has a shared purpose to win games or a championship.  The members have unique skills – some play defense and some play offense.  Some individuals are big and muscular, serving as linemen, while others are lean and fast, playing the position of a receiver.  A football team cannot exist without the unique roles that each individual plays and they synchronously to achieve their goals (literally).

What is Not a Team?

Teams are not random groups of people put together to do a task.  This is where I believe the word “team” gets abused.  A group of people that get together, even with a common thread of interest, is not a team.

One typical example of the mis-use of the work “team” is when we really mean a “work group.”  Here a group of people share a common skill set, say sales engineering, and we call them a “team”.  Each person in the group might work with different clients and on different projects with different target due dates and objectives.  The group shares a common professional title but is not united to tackle a singular challenge.

What is Leadership?

Leaders need followers.  Remember the game follow-the-leader from childhood?  Often one kid really stood out as a good “leader” because he balanced adventure with skill.  Business and engineering leaders also balance development of their team members with learning and application.

A good leader can manage schedules, budgets, and administrative tasks.  But that view is limiting.  A great leader adapts her management style to the situation that each team member faces.  Successful leaders motivate, encourage, and drive learning and growth.

I have always loved Ken Blanchard’s model of Situational Leadership for this reason.  Each person on a team is unique!  They are at different places in their professional journeys, so we need to inspire them to achieve their best with different motivators and encouragements.  For instance, a new hire just graduated from college will need mentoring and technical skills development while a 20-year employee needs confidence to take on leadership roles himself.

What is Not Leadership?

Leadership in not management.  Though a good leader can manage administrative tasks well, a leader’s role is much broader and more compassionate.  Many organizations today mis-use the word “leadership” when they really mean “management”.

For example, I am familiar with a large corporation that has established “leadership teams”.  Ugh!  The groups are comprised of senior managers and executives that make project, budget, and hiring decisions.  The group does not have natural followers and serves a purely management function.  I would argue they are neither “leaders” nor a “team” since each participating manager has independent goals for his or her functional area (marketing, operations, and R&D).

Teams and Leadership:  The Take-Aways

Words matter, as we are told, and our actions must align with the speed we employ.  Employees and staff in our organizations recognize a false effort to energize workers or to whitewash hierarchy by calling a directive management group a “leadership team”.

However, an honest and authentic leader can motivate and encourage a team by helping each individual grow his or her skills, learn to build on their strengths, and work toward a common purpose.

Leaders help teams become better by balancing skills and characteristics so that the output is greater than what each person could produce individually.  Leaders demonstrate good administrate skills but also encourage growth and learning for the whole team as it strives for a common purpose.  Moreover, leaders recognize setbacks as opportunities for improvement and not as failures.

Your Next Steps to Build Real Leadership Teams

Contact me at [email protected] or 281-280-8717 to learn more about Situational Team Leadership.  If you are in the position of leading a virtual team, please check out our courses and coaching at  Simple-PDH.com as well as Chapter 6 in PDMA Essentials Volume 3.  Finally, if you are a CIO (chief innovation officer) or NPD (new product development) manager, you will be interested in the Innovation Master Mind (IMM) group.  IMM is a 6-month peer coaching group that allows you to extend your NPD knowledge beyond NPDP certification and to collaborate with other CIOs and innovation managers.

 

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