Teams involved in developing new services or products will fail if they are unable to innovate. Successful innovation involves either creating and implementing something completely new, or adapting and modifying existing ideas. The right team climate can foster innovation, and the wrong climate will dampen innovation, or prevent good ideas being recognised and fostered.
We have worked with many clients to improve team innovation, as the following examples demonstrate:-
- Designing and delivering a team innovation workshop for a product development team, tasked with capturing new product ideas and getting them to market significantly faster. This involved profiling and feedback of individual and team propensity and style of innovation, and coaching in techniques for generating innovative ideas and solutions
- Coaching the leader of a software development team on how to develop an innovative team climate. Diagnostic survey of team innovation potential, with two follow-up surveys to track development and change.
- Designing a two-week development programme for a new team, tasked with introducing innovative practices within a short timescale. Mechanisms and activities to encourage innovation were built into the programme, and integrated with technical input. By the end of the programme, objective evidence of an innovative team climate was apparent, together with several new ideas suitable for immediate application.