Modul 12: Insights

Question 1

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Answer 1

• Many companies nowadays tend to practice open innovation.
• External ideas can be obtained either offline or online, in the latter case either through a direct contact or through an indirect contact via third parties such as innovation intermediaries.
• A challenge that should not be underestimated is the internal change needed in the culture, systems and processes in order to achieve adoption of the external ideas.

Question 2

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Answer 2

• In ordertopreventchaosandenhancethechancesofsuccess, weneeda certain structure
• The deployment of an innovation team is indicated if the right preconditions are met. This includes a demanding goal, time pressure, the complexity of the task, high demands on creativity, idea output, activation of individual potential, decision quality and decision acceptance. Otherwise a conventional hierarchical workgroup can be more efficient.
• A team is both an opportunity and a risk. A “real team” or a high-performance team (so called “extra-ordinary” team) such as a DARPA team performs better or much better, respectively, than a hierarchical working group. A “pseudo-team” or a “potential team”, on the other hand, is inferior to a hierarchical work group in terms of performance

Question 3

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Answer 3

• Optimal team design has a decisive influence on the success of the innovation team.
• The team basics of every innovation team initially include: a small number of team members, the skills of the team members complement each other, a commitment to a common mission and the same performance goals, a commitment to a uniform approach and joint and mutual responsibility.
• Radical innovation teams have to fulfill the additional requirements of co-location and 100% commitment to one project. From the Google study we learn that psychological security in the team, reliability of teammates, clear goals and roles, the personal importance of work and the positive effect of work on the general public are prerequisites for teams to actually achieve top performance

Question 4

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Answer 4

• How an innovation team is integrated in the company´s organization is very relevant for its success. A high-ranking team sponsor, who is external to the team and helps it to remove obstacles and to overcome the resistance to innovations in the company, increases the team’s chances of success considerably. A neutral process observer who does not belong to the team and who, as a coach, gives advice on improving team processes, can also be helpful
• The leader of an innovation team has the role of a moderator (management of the team charter), a controller (monitoring of team progress), an ambassador (management of the interfaces to the rest of the organization) and a coach (creating optimal conditions that help the team members themselves to manage oneself; management of the team and the team members)
• Innovationteams go through the four natural development phases of forming, storming, norming and performing. The company should give the team the time it takes to complete this cycle in order to lay the foundation for a real team