Innovation

Ask me about any of these books. I have read each one cover-to-cover at least once. Each one has influenced the way I think about leadership, teamwork, communication, and relationships. Who are the mentors in your library?

Teams shouldn’t be caught off guard when it comes time to innovate, yet many find themselves unprepared. At the moment in the team’s lifespan when creativity, exploration, and discovery are most valued, the foundation of mission and trust needs to be strongest. Mission, values, and vision for the future get defined much earlier on the clock. Psychological safety builds on top of that platform, also at an earlier hour. Good luck with your growth stage if those anchors aren’t in place.

LinkedIn offered to rewrite my blog post using AI before I pressed the ‘publish’ key. While I declined, I wondered at what stage of the process I would cease to be the author of my own article. Presumably, the AI tool would make it more readable and likely reach more readers. A better blog could be achieved if I was willing to relinquish authorship. Beyond the philosophical debate around AI, it got me thinking about basic creativity and collaboration.

Some musicians lean on theory to guide the notes they play. Others rely on their imagination. Both make music. Often, it is a blend of these differences that creates the best bands. Someone holds the structure of the tune together while somebody else improvises. Neither teammate thrives without the counterbalance of the other. Music provides plenty of life lessons for teams.

Change management and innovation skills are the same. Change management deals with loss and recovery. Innovation deals with obsolescence and discovery. What’s the difference? In both phases of the team’s evolution, teammates need to let go of the old and say hello to the new. Whether mourning a loss or taking a risk, the core competencies are shared. Let’s dig deeper.

Like human relationships, music composition is created by moving from dissonance to harmony. Composers know exactly how to take listeners on an emotional journey by establishing tension and then bringing the discomfort to resolution. Sometimes, a ‘wrong’ note is written into the piece with intention. Once the unexpected obstacle is introduced, it forces the listener to anticipate more harmonious interplay between the notes. Just like the problem solving that follows team conflict, it’s not about the wrong note. The way forward is about how we adapt to it.

Athletes routinely predict a strong offseason promising to come back in tiptop shape for the next campaign. When preseason training begins, only an elite few have actually put in the work needed to fulfill the prediction. The others scramble to catch up and the team’s overall readiness is impacted by this odd blend of physical and mental preparedness. The team’s success rests on a collection of individual commitments. So, which teammate are you going to be when the whistle blows?

I spent the summers between college years working on a bridge construction crew. We built spans that connected land over rivers, roads and railroad tracks. We enabled travel between locations previously separated by chasms. Each job was its own engineering masterpiece. The destination was always clear, but the path always required negotiation and dialogue. Many lessons learned in those years have been resurrected in recent months.

While change is often experienced as a loss, transitions usually become the fuel for renewal. The disruption is simply the trigger stage for the differences that are about to unfold. Because change causes emotional depletion, most teams devote their energy to coping and refueling. Thriving teams see this stage as the launch point for innovation. Answering these five questions will help your team move to action.

Teams have personalities. Some are tired and worn out from managing constant change. Others are frustrated by having to navigate conflict and differences of opinion. Still others are basking in the glow of trust while fearing what happens if they push their magic to the next level. A few teams figure out how to stay in the innovation mode all the time. Here’s their formula.

Seriously, we wish you a bad day. May struggle fill your agenda. May you confront problems never before faced. May your ability to adapt be tested. May you become aware of your weakest link. May demands stretch your team’s capacity to the brink of failure. Invite the tension. Seize the opportunity. Discover the resolution. What happens next is game changing.

The most innovative team in the history of Team Clock® engagements never stops their strategic planning activity. Their approach is not a time-limited series of steps that lead to a single vision. Instead, they embrace an ongoing, perpetual, cyclical process where the vision constantly evolves. The result is unparalleled discovery and invention. How do they do it?