Organizations must establish innovation teams to leverage emerging technologies like generative AI for value generation. These groups promote growth and competitive advantage by spearheading the creation of novel concepts, goods, and procedures. However, 95% of corporate innovation fails, so setting up innovation teams is crucial for success.
Innovation teams are crucial for enterprises to achieve multiple goals, including research, development, education, and project delivery. They require flexibility and maturity to test new ideas. The IBM GarageTM methodology can set them up for success with a unique structure and specific processes.
Organization of the team
1. Describe the structure of the organization:
Innovation teams are flexible and diverse, supporting various goals and functions. They are responsible for R&D and implementation, each with unique responsibilities and workflows, requiring distinct functional groups with their own supporting teams.
- The R&D function is a critical area of research, experimentation, and prototyping, necessitating increased flexibility, continuous experimentation, and adaptability.
- IBM Garage employs agile scrum methodologies, forming product squads with a product owner and a development team. This structure ensures efficient delivery of business value through iterative product increments. The team uses “T-shape” talent, which combines hybrid disciplines with deep core expertise relevant to their products, to streamline execution.
The innovation team can simultaneously investigate new ideas and successfully launch them thanks to these unique structures.
2. Instruct your company:
Innovation teams must not only perform execution and R&D functions but also engage in education and activation efforts, partnering with business stakeholders. Planned events like hackathons and educational tools foster innovation and organizational change. Coordination between R&D and execution functions is crucial for impactful activations. Scalable structures and processes are essential for expanding exploratory and delivery aspects without losing effectiveness. This dual-function approach ensures responsiveness to market demands and internal growth opportunities.
Joining forces with the company
3. Establish consistent procedures and governance:
A well-defined operating model is essential for successful business collaboration. A central function, like an innovation team, sets strategic direction and best practices, allowing other business units to operate independently while adhering to established guidelines. Governance sets standards, aligns with organizational goals, and orchestrates value across units. Stage gating and funding oversight ensure resources align with strategic objectives, fostering innovation, efficiency, and consistency.
Innovation-specific procedures
4. Create an intake procedure:
Innovation teams need a structured work intake framework to manage inbound requests efficiently and effectively. This allows them to focus on promising initiatives while maintaining flexibility to adapt to changing priorities.
An intake process involves various aspects of innovation, including idea submission, product development, and launch. It should be accompanied by governance structures, including functional business leaders. At stage gates, reviews by the governing body are held for approval. This structured approach ensures a smooth flow between R&D and execution teams, minimizing misalignment and maximizing success. This framework is crucial for innovation teams to prioritize projects aligning with the company’s strategy and goals.
5. Encourage a feedback-friendly culture:
The Garage methodology emphasizes the importance of quick and frequent iterations in the innovation process. To deliver value, teams should cultivate a culture of collaboration and open communication, which leaders should make the norm within their teams.
- Team leaders play a crucial role in creating a psychological safety environment by fostering trust, empathy, and support. This environment encourages risk-taking, learning from mistakes, and collaboration through informal gatherings, life sharing, and team building activities.
- Establish team norms for feedback, such as the Stanford method, and encourage sharing of ideas using the “I like; I wish; what if…” approach.
- Develop diverse feedback opportunities, such as one-on-one check-ins, regular retrospectives, and unplanned just-in-time sessions, to ensure continuous improvement and development.
Innovation teams can transform failure into a worthwhile learning experience that propels progress over time by placing a high priority on psychological safety and feedback.
The IBM Garage framework helps businesses come up with creative ideas and gives clients the tools and resources they need to quickly transform those ideas into value. IBM Garage has assisted customers in coming up with 10 times more creative ideas and achieving results 67% more quickly. Find out more about Garage’s methods and how they can help you boost your creativity.
