Category Archives: leading
16: Grok the gestalt of teams
If you're going to get innovative stuff done in the world, odds are you're going to do it with other people. If you haven't looked out the window lately, we're living in an ever more connected and interdependent world. If there ever was a time for lone inventors to thrive, this is not it: smart, action-oriented, high-EQ, multidisciplinary, interdependent teams are uniquely positioned to take on the broad, systemic challenges so in need of innovative thinking today.
So if you're going to do remarkable stuff, you've got to learn to grok the gestalt of teams.
There's an entire literature on effective team roles and dynamics that I won't go in to here, but based on all my years of battling on the front lines to bring new stuff in to the world, here are a few of my favorite insights in to behaviors that make for exceptional teams:
- Build it out of T-shaped people: an effective innovation team is composed of people who are really good at what they were put on earth to do, but also share a common way of getting things done in the world. We want depth: an engineer needs to be an engineer's engineer, and we want the MBA to be capable of unlevering a beta in her sleep. But we want breadth, too. We need them both to not only get along, but to thrive in a symbiotic relationship centered on getting stuff done. In my experience, what adds that breadth to a team is a group of individuals who are versed in the ways of design thinking.
- Know thyself, and let everyone else know, too: a high-performing team is no place for posturing or secrets. If you're good at something, we want to know so that we can you let you be the lead on that. And if you're not so good at something, we want to know that too so that we can help you get better, or keep you from wasting time on that front. The way this happens is for individuals to be proactive about disclosing this information through the course of the life of a team.
- Be friendly, because the networked world is your oyster: imagine how powerful your small team could be if it were part of a vast network of experts and people wanting to contribute to your success, if only you'd ask. Well, guess what? Via the marvels of modern technology, you're already there. Need someone to hack some code? How about a coder in Bangladesh? Need an expert on nanotubes? Find her on Twitter. Need some help with that marketing plan? Why not befriend that VP that occasionally strolls by your team space? The network your team needs to hit the remarkable zone is already there waiting to be asked. Be friendly and invite those folks in. Because they want to be on the team, too.
These are only a few points. What matters to you when it comes to being part of an effective innovation team? I'd love to hear.
As the cliched saying goes, "there's no 'I' in team" (and you never want to be at the receiving end of the saying "there's no YOU in team", but I digress…), so get out there and grok the gestalt of teams. Be the team, good things will happen.
This is number 16 in a series of 21 principles of innovation. As always, your comments, thoughts, and ideas are most welcome.
metacool Thought of the Day
"What is it that confers the noblest delight? What is that which swells a
man's breast with pride above that which any other experience can bring
to him? Discovery! To know that you are walking where none others have
walked; that you are beholding what human eye has not seen before; that
you are breathing a virgin atmosphere. To give birth to an idea — to
discover a great thought — an intellectual nugget, right under the dust of
a field that many a brain — plow had gone over before. To find a new
planet, to invent a new hinge, to find the way to make the lightnings
carry your messages. To be the first — that is the idea. To do
something, say something, see something, before any body else — these are
the things that confer a pleasure compared with which other pleasures are
tame and commonplace, other ecstasies cheap and trivial."
– Mark Twain, Innocents Abroad
Leading tribes, cultivating movements, part II
Julia Kirby of Harvard Business Publishing has just written a lovely post about the Stanford d.school CIA team behind the push to turn part of downtown Palo Alto in to a pedestrian zone. It's titled Starting a Movement, Learning to Lead. Here's an excerpt:
So you tell me: is Creating Infectious Action a course in
leadership? To be sure, it doesn't focus on individuals' leadership
journeys. There's no competency model at its heart. But what is
leadership all about if not creating a vision of something different
and better, getting people excited about it, and mobilizing everyone to
cooperate in accomplishing it? If you can go out there and create
infectious action, I'm inclined to call you a leader. And if you can't,
you probably shouldn't call yourself one.
I asked Captain Hughes what he'd do next with the toolkit he gained in
Creating Infectious Action. Beyond Palo Alto and pedestrians, would the
course have a lasting impact? "I've always said that if I ever get to
be a General, I would definitely change a few things," he mused. Like
anyone down in an organization, there were some procedures and
policies–like aspects of the Army Physical Fitness Test–he
thought were downright silly. "But now I think maybe you don't need to
be a General," he said. "You just have to get a little movement going.
Then you start getting people on board."
Creating Infectious Action. Beyond Palo Alto and pedestrians, would the
course have a lasting impact? "I've always said that if I ever get to
be a General, I would definitely change a few things," he mused. Like
anyone down in an organization, there were some procedures and
policies–like aspects of the Army Physical Fitness Test–he
thought were downright silly. "But now I think maybe you don't need to
be a General," he said. "You just have to get a little movement going.
Then you start getting people on board."
As I wrote in my post about Seth Godin's recent talk at TED, you can't manage a movement, but you can lead one, even cultivate
one. So yes, Creating Infectious Action is a course about leadership, where leading looks a lot like cultivating a garden.
Man, what a great team. This makes me so happy.
Paul Bennett & Egill Helgason on design thinking, Iceland, the future of the world economy, and a whole bunch of other important topics
I'd be posting these videos even if Paul Bennett and I weren't colleagues at IDEO, so rich and fascinating is this conversation between Paul and Egill Helgason, the host of the Icelandic show Silfur Eglis. Design thinking is a central theme of their time together, and they touch on many important topics of the day, including transparency, community, and how we might move ourselves out of this mess. It's definitely worth a listen.
And don't worry — it's all in English! Enjoy.
Leading tribes, cultivating a movement
This is the second of my favorite talks coming out of this year's TED conference. Seth Godin takes us through his ideas about leading tribes. I think he does a fabulous job of describing a different way of leading, a way that seems like the perfect fit to our highly networked, interconnected, and (potentially) interdependent world.
His three questions at 14:15 are priceless.
You can't manage a movement. But you can lead one, even cultivate one. Don't be a sheepwalker — try and lead the tribe that matters most to you.
metacool Thought of the Day
"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm."
– Winston Churchill
David H. Liu Memorial Lecture Series in Design at Stanford
The David H. Liu Memorial Lecture Series in Design starts up again next week. The speaker roster is truly amazing, and they should be an awesome experience.
If you're anywhere near Stanford on these dates, I highly recommend stopping by. Do check the series website for any room or date changes.
A Harvard Business Review Debate: How to Fix Business Schools
I'm participating is something new for me, an extended online debate. I'm a panelist for How to Fix Business Schools, which is being hosted by the Harvard Business Review. Here's the blurb:
Are our business schools up to the job? Many critics have charged
that the values imparted in MBA programs contributed significantly to
the ethical and strategic lapses that led to the current economic
crisis. Is that fair? And if so, what needs to change? How can business
schools regain popular trust?
For the next several weeks Harvard Business Review
will be discussing these and related questions in the HBR Debate: How
To Fix Business Schools. For this online symposium, we’ve invited an
impressive roster of experts to lead the debate—and to try to come up
with solutions.
So there you go. This should be fun: I can't wait to see what many of my co-panelists — many of whom are former professors of mine or individuals whose writing has been a big influence on my own worldview — have to say about the debate topic.
If I write anything particularly meaty or inflammatory I'll make a note of here on metacool.
metacool Thought of the Day
"I might look successful but I've had many failures. People take failure too seriously. You have to be positive and believe you will find success next time."
source: Monocle, Issue 22, p. 81