Principles of Innovative Teams

Owned by Shannon Bradley
Last updated: Feb 05, 2024
3 min read

For our purpose we will cover the 5 Principles of Innovative Teams.

Large scientific research teams are incredibly complex. Countless perspectives and disciplines— all the people we have discussed who are our stakeholder “Personas” —are required to collaborate in order to work in harmony.  The process we use to bring together these individuals is called integrative team design (ITD).

Why integrative team design? 

To many, this simply means getting more people in the room. But is more people and more meetings really what it takes to develop meaningful solutions?

The Integrative Team Design Process is the arguably largest determinant of the success and efficiency of a team. Along with the advancement of research and technology, this process is a critical tool in sustaining the project which supports research advancement. So it’s really important we get this right.

But with so many people involved, how can we come to better decisions faster?

Most teams would agree that an Integrative Team Process is meaningful, but they are often overwhelmed with the number of people that should be at the table and the time required to make decisions in large groups.  They often ask, how can we come to better decisions faster?

So, how do we create successful integrative teams?

We can look at five key principles of Integrative Team Design.  By using these principles, teams can build a network with the capacity to make better decisions faster.

1. A Facilitator Guides the Team

A trained or experienced facilitator is necessary to moderate the interactions on a team and build trust. Facilitators also develop willingness to take risks and openness to learning within the team, while encouraging equal participation. Every team needs a cat herder.

2. The Team Establishes Rules of Interaction

Teams must establish ground rules to guide their interaction.  These ground rules most often resemble:

  • Everyone knows everyone

  • We all have an equal voice & an expectation to contribute

  • Decisions are informed by whole group input

  • We are all learning and don’t individually have all the answers

3. The Team has Diverse and Inclusive Membership

Innovation doesn’t happen in a team with people who all think the same or have the same perspectives and opinion. Diversity is required in order to bring the unique data, perspectives, and specialized expertise which are necessary for innovation.

4. The Team has a Core-Periphery Structure

The core team is dense and everyone is very connected (everyone knows everyone), but this team reaches out to a periphery of resources to bring in new ideas and information to the group. (remember this?)

 

5. The Team Utilizes Integrative Decision Making

The team utilizes a process of generating major decisions as a group, vetting them with appropriate individuals, making sure they align with project vision and goals, and refining decisions as a team.

 

 

https://blog.ibe.colostate.edu/2015/04/21/the-5-principles-of-innovative-teams/