Building and Managing Innovative Project Teams - Example

Building and Managing Innovative Project Teams Name Course Lecture Date Executive summary Innovative projects teams have a tendency of failing. This is to some extent attributed the innovations teams who are tasked with the duty of finding breakthrough growth in various corporations. The setting up of the teams seems to be crucial yet a considerable number of organizations fail when setting up these teams. This report sets out to examine the way project teams ought to be led, organized and managed so as to deliver innovative solutions. This will be done by looking at relevant literature on how to build and manage innovative project teams. This section will be followed closely by the identification of factors or variables that can impede or enable innovation in a project team. The report will further outline the challenges and opportunities that project team’s faces in their endeavor to implement and introduce a new idea. Lastly, there will be a recommendation on how organizations can ensure that their projects can deliver successful innovation. Contents Building and managing innovative project teams The first step when it comes to the building and management of innovative teams is selecting the right people (Dulaimi 2007). A good starting point would be a clear understanding of the definite work that the team is supposed to accomplish and based on these, optimize the personnel around the key activities. A typical phase in innovative teams is the creative aspect that sets out to generate new and innovative business ideas. There is also an analytical phase that helps in understanding the company’s potential as well as a development stage that refines all the promising ideas and test them in the market. With these in mind, gathering people who are only capable of thinking outside the box is not sufficient for success since the idea generation is just a part of the process. Thus, a better staffing goal need to be achieved so as to bring a team that has a lot of skills, experiences, academic knowledge and to bring members with a broad range of professional networks (Lane & Lubatkin 1998). The second step involves the selection of well-connected team members. In innovative project teams, there exists no way in which the individual innovator can be divorced from his network (Müller & Turner 2010). This is based on the fact that, a substantial network usually offers insight into other broader range of knowledge and at the same time, provides the required level of support. If an innovative team is not able to take full advantage of its available network, it will undoubtedly fail or be less successful. Although the innovation project teams usually network fairly impulsively, the quality of professional networks formed ought to be an open selection criterion especially when staffing decision is being made. In fact, the availability of modern tools has made the task of mapping networks easier. The other step in building and managing innovative team project is the picking of the team leader and providing the leader with the autonomy needed for him/her to be successful. In relation to these, there is need to consider some principles of leadership that seems to be unique for innovative teams. First and foremost, it would be disastrous to have more than one leader. This is because, by having more than one leader, an innovation is likely to experience inefficient decision-making, as well as low morale (Dwivedulaa, Christophe & Bredillet 2010). One leader in a project feels free to own decisions and arrive at final decisions and by doing so the project will fair along smoothly. The other step involves the building of a team that can be able to identify any gaps that exist in a market and markets in the gap. A good business idea is more likely to fill a particular gap that exists in a market. That can be a good starting point, but it is not enough for it to be considered as a genuine innovation. Innovations are said to happen when there is a good idea, and also there is existence of real customers who are willing to pay for the innovation (McKenna 2012). A great number of the innovation teams usually fail to bring people on board that have the skills of ensuring that the two aspects happen. Thus, it would be essential to have ethnographers in the team for them to observe and interview people as they go about their daily activities. This will ensure that companies do not innovate in a vacuum and that the consumers and their needs become a driving force for their work. The other step involves the communicating of new business idea. Team members who can describe the problems and offer solutions in a captivating way gain the attention and encourage actions within the organization. These kinds of team members are helpful since they play a great role in supporting collaboration and support from other members of the organization. Additionally, it is also simpler for audiences to listen to a well-summarized story of the company rather than sit and view a presentation of the financial projection and industry analysis (Hofstede & Hofstede 2010). The other essential step in building and managing innovative project teams is the understanding the difference between bad and good conflicts. While it is strongly believed that, diverse innovation teams will more or less achieve the best results, it is also more likely that bringing together people from different thinking preferences, roles and perspectives will ultimately lead to interpersonal friction. These differences will result in conflict and discomfort thus careful attention need to be taken on the team working processes. By getting the people who have differences to work together productively, it ensures that diversity can always be harnessed. The other step is to complement the innovation team with an external provocateur. External experts need to be brought in for them to function as a knowledge resource. Teams that lack a spark need to have a wild card member. This member will act as an irritant in that, their experiences and personalities are in total contrast with the rest of the members. The presence of this member serves as a boost of energy for the other team members. The other step involves the setting of goals and measuring progress. The team that tends to perform highly regularly revisits their objectives in a periodic manner and thus is done as a way of reinforcing and measuring their commitment to the cause (McKenna 2012). The metrics that seems to work well are the ones that the innovative teams have co-created. Teams are usually accountable and committed to goals that they have set for themselves. Additionally, team members ought to think and act like start-up entrepreneurs. It is hard for team members to mimic the commitment and engagement of entrepreneurs. To a great extent, some members of the innovation teams tend to work as in a business as usual manner. This is a severe contrast to entrepreneurs who are driven by their passion for making sacrifices such as work for long hours for the sake of the business. Thus, corporations need to change the behaviors and mindsets among the teams for innovative ideas to be formulated. Lastly, it would be essential to ensure that, innovative team members are fully committed. Successful innovators seem to have a unique mindset and tend to be fully committed to their call and thus spend a lot of time in ensuring the project succeeds. There also exists a wide range of factors as well as valuables that can enable or impede innovation in a project team. One such factor is the market condition or the economic climate. It is easier to maintain an innovation culture when the markets conditions are favorable. The other factors that can enable or impede innovation is the organizational culture (Hofstede & Hofstede 2010). This relates to the stories that people tell about success and how they share what they have learned on how to carry out certain activities. The teams in an organization can also determine the innovativeness in an organization. Thus, employers need to focus more on improving collaborative and efficient team dynamics so as to keep the innovation engine running smoothly (Pettinger 2000). By involving the team members in the innovation, the probability that the innovation will succeed is high. Challenges and opportunities project teams have faced in their endeavor Project teams are usually presented with a number of opportunities when working on projects and at the same time they also face a number of challenges. One of the greatest challenges they face relates to poorly defined goals and having unrealistic objectives. When goals of innovate project are unclear, it is very difficult to complete the project. The other challenge is closely linked to poor and inadequate communication. The advancement in technology has made it possible for information to flow endlessly. Nevertheless, the right information is at times offered to the wrong individuals. This can be greatly attributed to the fact that, companies are reluctant when it comes to building and developing good communication skills, and they are also not sure of who are or what is right. This can be simplified by answering the question of what, who, when and how in every innovative project that needs to be undertaken (Bessant & Tidd 2011). At the same time, not all leaders have strong communication skills. This need to be made a priority and considered all the way through to the completion of the project. The third challenge facing project teams in their endeavors is the lack of adequate resources for the innovative team projects. Innovative projects require a broad range of resources, and it would also be appropriate to spend a lot of time thinking about these resources before venturing into the project. The most crucial resource, in this case, is the human resource. Innovative projects need to have the right team in place for it to succeed. Project managers usually search for well-balanced team members who can complement one another and can offer different skills and experience in various areas. Team leaders also need to consider in advance resources such as office space, printers, and computers as well as other tools that are necessary for making the project a success (McKenna 2012). Despite the above-stated challenges, innovative project teams are also presented with a number of opportunities when engaging in their endeavors. An important opportunity relates to the sharing of knowledge and experience. Each employee who is selected to be part of the innovative project team comes with a set of relevant skills and knowledge. Though some experience areas may overlap, others may be distinct from one employee to the other. When they work with team employees, they can gain knowledge, skills and experience of other fields. The polled work experience usually makes it easier for the team members to be able to tackle their project though it may have different facets. If one of the team members is allocated the project individually, it is more likely that he/she will struggle when it comes to the aspects due to limited experience. The other opportunity is closely linked to idea generation. When teams are allocated a project to work on, they are supposed to discuss the project and come up with the best way to carry out the project. Through these, more ideas are generated, and it also encourages creativity among the members (Lane & Lubatkin 1998). Also, through discussing, the team members can come up with a solution to existing problems in a faster way and they may also discover new and advanced ways of tackling the tasks in a more efficient manner. Recommendations Based on the above discussion in building and managing innovative project teams, below are some recommendations that can be adopted by organizations. A major recommendation that can be taken to ensure that organizations can deliver their successful innovation is through the pooling of team members who have diverse skills (Bessant & Tidd 2011). The team members of an innovative project need to be selected from almost all professional fields that are available in the organization. This enables them to chip in the project when the project requires knowledge of their area of specialization. Through these, all team members will bring relevant skills to the projects making it possible for the innovation to be successful. The other recommendation relates to setting and measuring of goals. Setting and measuring of goals has been found to be an essential element to long term success. The reason for this notion is that, no one is able to get somewhere if they do not know where they are going. Research by various authors has showed that, there exists a close connection between goals and enhanced business performance. Through the setting and measuring of objectives, the project team members will always be aware of what is expected of them (Dulaimi 2007). So as to ensure that this is achieved, the goals needs to measurable, relevant, specific, and attainable and time-bound. The last recommendation relates to communication and conflict between the team members. It is essential for all the team members to have basic communication skills. This will play a great role in communicating on what need to be done in a project (Hofstede & Hofstede 2010). At the same time, when team members have a clear and concise understanding of each other, they are more likely to finish the project within the allocated time. Conflict also affects the project in various ways. Constructive conflict within the project ought to be encouraged, and bad conflict condemned. Bad conflict is likely to make the innovative project lag behind and fail to be completed within the stipulated time. If organizations adopted the above-stated recommendations, they are bound to excel in their innovative project teams. References Bessant, J & Tidd, J 2011, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Wiley, West Sussex. Dulaimi, M 2007, ‘Case studies on knowledge sharing across cultural boundaries’, Journal of Engineering, Construction, and Architectural Management, Vol. 14, no. 6, pp. 550-567. Dwivedulaa, R., Christophe N. & Bredillet, C 2010, ‘Profiling work motivation of project workers’, International Journal of Project Management, vol. 28 (2), pp. 158-165. Hofstede, G & Hofstede, G 2010, Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind: Intercultural cooperation and its importance for survival, McGraw-Hill, New York. Lane, P & Lubatkin, M 1998, ‘Relative absorptive capacity and inter-organizational learning’, Strategic Management Journal, vol. 19, pp. 461-477. McKenna, E 2012, Business Psychology and Organizational Behavior, Psychology Press, United Kingdom. Müller, R & Turner, R 2010, ‘Leadership competency profiles of successful project managers’, International Journal of Project Management, vol. 28, no. 5, pp. 437-448. Pettinger, R 2000, Mastering organisational behaviour, Palgrave, England. Read More