Most entrepreneurs I know are individually very innovative, but a successful startup can’t be a one-man show (for long). That means they need to build an innovative team, which is not a skill that most people are born with. In fact, some very innovative individuals, known as ‘idea people’ or inventors, often end up creating the most dysfunctional teams.
A typical approach to dealing with team dysfunction or no innovation process is to work around it, which normally leads to startup failure. The only way to build productive, collaborative, innovative, and cohesive teams is by resolving core dysfunction issues and implementing a structured process for innovation.
There are many resources out there to help you address team dysfunction, but very few provide much insight on a process for maximizing startup team innovation once you have the motivated people. Chris Grivas and Gerard Puccio published a classic book, “The Innovative Team,” which seems to hit the issue directly, with stories to illustrate key points.
They outline a simple process or framework for fostering team innovation, called FourSight, which is composed of four steps, capitalizing on the leader’s and other team member’s strengths and interests, that is consistent with my own experience in big companies as well as small:
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Clarify the situation. Innovation is not all about coming up with new ideas. It really is first figuring out which challenges are the most important. Clarifying means sorting out the real problem from the symptoms or distractions, and focusing all team energies there to change things for the better.
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Generate ideas. This requires divergent thinking, with the strengths of every team member, to generate as many ideas as possible. Then it requires convergent thinking when there are enough ideas to choose from. Look for that sparkling new idea or “eureka” moment to develop into a workable solution.
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Develop the best solution. No idea is born perfect. Here the goal is to transform a novel idea into one that can be implemented successfully, with tinkering, adjusting, and polishing. True creativity brings novelty and usefulness together. This step includes verification will the solution will actually work, and the improvement can be measured.
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Implement plans. This is the stage where project plans are created and implemented. Now it’s all about action, and in many ways, about managing change. People who prefer this stage of the process tend to be drivers, known for making quick decisions and getting results. It always helps to temper their preference with patience and sensitivity to others.
In business today, it takes a team to get work done, whether we are talking about a startup or a large conglomerate. The potential of any team is defined by its members, not just individually, but collectively. Then the right process is required for innovative thinking that is greater than the sum of their individual talents and skills.
Although most startups say they want to create a culture of innovation, they should realize that there are implications. Leaders have to focus on open and honest communication to maintain trust. Founders have to be willing and able to reject ideas that won’t work, in a way that still encourages more creativity.
Entrepreneurs have to remain open to creativity and change, despite high-pressured investors driving more toward “making it through the day” and “timeline deliverables” than producing well-developed and novel products, improvements, or new directions.
