Nine Strategies to Drive Innovation in Teams

As the economy sputters forward on the road to recovery, many executives are shifting gears to re-focus their organizations on creativity and innovation in the quest for growth, according to research conducted by WJM Associates. Most critical, businesses are investing again in teams as a way to tap innovation, develop new skills and re-engage their employees. This article identifies nine strategies used by WJM clients and market leaders to drive team creativity, innovation, and alignment.

1. Using Data to Identify and Discuss Customer Needs.
Customer centricity remains a strong theme among companies and teams focused on growth and innovation. But innovation only occasionally starts with the "big idea." More often, creativity can be found at every level, and especially in teams where the voice of the customer is a source of continual feedback and improvement. Innovative teams use customer data (internal and external) and feedback to frame the conversation and ask questions. Their leaders stress the urgency - even the crisis - that frames the team's need to deliver value. Innovative teams understand their competitor's strengths and weaknesses - and also their own unique value proposition. They continually ask, "How do we differentiate our products and services to deliver value?"

2. Finding and Developing the "Right" Talent.
Having the right talent on your team is a core requirement needed to drive innovation and growth. Yet the challenge is not only to recruit and place talent, but also to ensure that this talent is working effectively within the team and business environment to drive business outcomes. Market leaders often use development and assessment tools to help their employees function more productively within and across work teams. They promote diversity of thought and cross disciplinary thinking. As a practice, they also provide team members with information about each other's skills and preferences enhancing understanding, communication and respect.

3. Creating a Climate that Fosters Innovation.
A third strategy for enhancing innovation and creativity addresses the team's work environment. Innovative teams require a "climate of innovation." Climate is the recurring behavior, attitudes and feelings that people experience at work that support or hinder innovation. One of the better known innovation climate survey instruments is the SOQ based upon the work of Swedish psychologist Dr. Goran Ekvall. The SOQ measures people's perceptions of nine innovation dimensions and, unlike many broad-based climate surveys, may be used at the work team level. These dimensions include: challenge and involvement, freedom, trust and openness, idea time, playfulness and humor, conflict, idea support, debate, and risk taking. People in innovative teams are found to have more of each dimension, with the exception of conflict - a negative dimension in the SOQ scale. Leaders and human resource partners work to address any needed dimensions.

4. Creating Clear Direction through a Common Vision, Goal, and Priorities.
Creating a clear and shared vision, measurable goals, and priorities are other strategies of innovative teams. The shared vision provides a picture of what could be. Vision is a catalyst that can impel an organization or team to move forward with a shared purpose. It is a "high order" objective. Measurable goals, on the other hand, create team accountability. Yet they also provide constraints and boundaries within which the team must operate. If managed correctly, these constraints can be a spur to creativity. Innovative teams are also good at setting innovation priorities.

5. Managing Ideas and the Innovation Process.
Creativity and innovation play different functions in teams. Creativity is often defined by ideas, especially the generation, interplay and diversity of ideas impacting each other. Innovation, on the other hand, is a process by which an idea or invention is translated into a good or service that people value. Innovative teams have both the idea generation capacity as well as the process that supports execution and value creation. More formal processes for prioritizing ideas and organizing the innovation process from beginning to end have improved success rates, according to McKinsey. Many companies adopt a formal stage-gate process (requiring executive approvals) to develop, refine and weed out new ideas that come from within the team.

6. Identifying and Managing the Barriers and Risks to Innovation.
Innovative teams take the time to continually identify the barriers and risks that are involved in a new process, product, or market initiative. They ask, how can barriers be eliminated or minimized? How can sponsors or systems be used to support new ideas and innovation? How will key stakeholders be impacted by any changes? Ironically, the biggest barrier to innovation, say many middle managers, is organizational - too much control from the top (smothering) or not enough support (neglect). More than a few companies are finding it hard to shift out of the restructuring mode of the last few years - to shift from cost cutting to innovation and the risk taking that may be required.

7. Promoting Collaboration and Relationship Building
Another key strategy of innovative teams is their willingness to collaborate across functions and create strong, proactive relationships with stakeholders. Ironically, some of the performance management tools used to segment and identify talent (such as the nine box and talent segmentation) can create hyper competitive work environments that make collaboration and risk-taking difficult. Behavior competencies can be used to stress targeted competencies related to collaboration, innovation and risk taking. Some companies like IBM have worked hard to build social networking capability and systems which promote collaboration across traditional boundaries and functions.

8. Using Feedback and Coaching to Improve Team Performance.
Innovative teams use feedback and coaching to improve processes. They have resources (internal and/or external) to develop skills, improve processes and transfer knowledge to ensure continuous improvement and learning. They identify key stakeholders and strategies to collect targeted feedback, especially in the launch of pilots and new initiatives. They view testing as a critical step which requires planning, communication and outreach.

9. Aligning Recognition and Rewards Around the Innovation Process.
Finally, innovative teams reinforce, recognize, reward and celebrate success. Typically, innovative teams offer a higher frequency of reinforcement for team members with peer reinforcement and recognition. For example, team members may practice active listening skills versus critiquing each other's ideas - a reinforcing practice which leads to a higher quality and volume of ideas. Innovative teams also provide higher levels of recognition for team performance, often celebrating key milestones in the team's performance. Their leaders also ensure alignment of tangible rewards (such as promotion and pay) with the achievement of team outcomes.

In Summary
In the drive for growth, leaders are employing new and not so new team strategies to engage and align teams to unlock innovation capability They are often countering the effects of cost cutting, restructuring, and low workforce engagement brought on by the recession. While it may be difficult to assess the full business impact of innovative teams, the evidence is clear that innovation strategies can accelerate the achievement of innovative business outcomes.
 

Excellence can be obtained if you care more than others think is wise, risk more than others think is safe, dream more than others think is practical and expect more than others think is possible.
- Anonymous

In our uncertain economy, it's more important than ever to be part of a company designated as one of the "Best Places to Work."

Why? Because those who work in such an environment exhibit a sense of pride, are willing to stretch and are heavily invested in the wellbeing of the company. As a result, they are more motivated to give their best, and more resilient and tolerant to downturns. That elevated spirit is the equivalent of throwing a flat stone that skims across a clear lake and sends out a series of concentric circles that reaches wide and deep within the company and far beyond its borders - to its customers, its applicants, its competitors, and its community.


What ingredients are essential to be designated by the phrase "Best Places." Our experience has repeatedly highlighted nine factors:

1. Trust is the cornerstone of any successful organization.
   It reduces uncertainty, fosters direct communication, limits double talk and second guessing and increases the efficiency and effectiveness of making things happen.
2. The ability to take prudent risks.
   We don't equate risk as being synonymous with uncertainty. We view it as understanding the laws of opportunity and probability. Those who truly understand their business take intelligent risks. Under this scenario the net effect is that people appreciate that they gain by not being afraid to lose.
3. A can-do attitude that promotes pragmatic optimism.
   This is a critical factor that challenges the risk adverse person and naysayer. It energizes the organization and moves innovative ideas that might languish into dynamic actions that can be measured and acted upon.
4. The capacity to manage the fundamentals.
   There is a focus on the core strengths and talent that includes the desire to set the course, prioritize the essentials and select those most capable of delivering the goods. Assignments are given to people with a strong history of accountability and responsibility and a proven track record.
5. The courage to make, acknowledge and repair mistakes.
   Mistakes are the unavoidable threads woven into the fabric of our lives. None of us escape this fate, no matter how smart, confident or cautious we may be. A confident organization will trust a reliable person to make a mistake. They appreciate that such an initiative is part of a learning attitude that has the potential to convert a mistake into a portal of discovery that could lead to new opportunities.
6. A Commitment to Work with Others
   This concept recognizes that people are empowered by other people, and that they and the organization become their best when they cooperate and share their spoils. It eschews narcissistic behavior and the dog-eat-dog competitive system of winners and losers.
7. Develop a Diverse Team.
   A "Best" company includes those with different backgrounds as well as the full spectrum of those at different points in their life cycle. Such different experiences and cognitive mindsets create an exciting culture that fosters innovation and pays enormous dividends.
8. Reward successful projects.
   Good work should be acknowledged, in a timely manner with appropriate rewards.
9. A safe work environment- physically, mentally and spiritually- with zero tolerance.
   Among many factors this includes a policy that has teeth that spells no favoritism, bullying or other forms of harassment and treating people with respect and dignity. No one regardless of their title should be immune. A lax attitude regarding these issues sets the stage for a toxic environment.

To sustain the role of "Best Place" requires a deep ongoing commitment from strong leadership that serves as a role model. One doesn't have to have spectacular or expensive ideas to be the "Best." Any company with a sincere desire to do so can make it happen. John Gardner, the former head of Common Cause, defined Excellence as "doing ordinary things extraordinarily well."

Amy Armitage, Senior Vice President will serve as Account Director for New England and as a member of the firm's leadership, sales and consulting teams.  Amy brings more than 20 years of sales and consulting experience to WJM, including expertise in account management, leadership and team alignment, talent management, executive coaching, and design of business strategies to drive innovation and strategy execution.   She has worked with a wide range of clients in healthcare, pharmaceuticals, insurance, financial services, technology, entertainment, and manufacturing.   She has assisted clients in implementing behavior change, business improvement and growth initiatives at the executive, team, and organizational level.
 
Previously, Amy was managing Director for Delta NPD, a consulting firm dedicated to enhancing leadership and organizational effectiveness related to new products development and market growth.  She also served as Acting Managing Director and a Principal at Capital H Group and a Principal with CLG in Pittsburgh. She earned an MBA from the Yale School of Management and B.A. from Duke University at the Institute for Public Policy Sciences.  She lives in Ridgefield CT with her husband and three children.  
Dixie Harper, Vice President, Client Services and Operations has been brought to WJM to enhance the coordination and quality of Company's service delivery.  Dixie has over 15 years of experience in Human Resource Consulting, in roles spanning leadership, operations, and consulting delivery for executive coaching, career coaching, retained executive search, and HR consulting firms.  The depth and diversity of Dixie's experience and her broad content knowledge provide her with a unique ability to partner with WJM's clients on organizational effectiveness and leadership development initiatives.
 
Prior to joining WJM, Dixie led her own organizational effectiveness consulting practice for eight years.  Previously she was Director of Operations & Director of Organizational Effectiveness for Management and Capital Partners, a retained executive search and organizational effectiveness consulting firm, and Operations Manager for the New York office of Personnel Decisions International (PDI).  Dixie graduated from the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University, earning a B.S. in Human Resource Management and a B.S. in Marketing.
 

Patricia Alexander, Office Manager, is now responsible for many of the day-to-day operations at WJM.  Tricia works closely with the Company's leadership team, as well as the Faculty on managing consulting engagements.  She is also responsible for customer support, often managing client relations, as well as a variety of project management protocols. Prior to joining WJM, Tricia held various roles in donor development for grassroots nonprofits and spent 10 years implementing communications initiatives at the United Nations.  Tricia has a Bachelors degree in Journalism from Southern Connecticut University and is currently pursuing a Masters of Public Administration from John Jay College in New York City.
 
"We are thrilled to now have Amy, Dixie and Tricia at WJM." said Tim Morin, WJM's President and CEO, "Their experience and unique skills will allow us to further strengthen the services we provide our corporate clients, while continuing to make a lasting difference in the lives of the individual leaders we support.  Each of the three will play critical roles in the next chapter of WJM's growth."
 
Please join us in welcoming Amy, Dixie and Tricia to the WJM team.