Managing the Unmanageable: 13 Tips for Building and Leading a Successful Innovation Team

Nearly all innovation is done by teams. And while there are many books about the innovation process, and also many about managing teams, the management of innovation teams has gone unaddressed.

This matters, because innovation teams are not like other teams. Most teams and their managers know where they are headed. They’ve probably been there and done it previously, more than once. Innovation is different. The problem objective has been outlined, but the journey and the destination are full of unknowns and untrieds. The team is tasked with going where none have gone before-with scaling a mountain whose height, form, and hidden passes are unknown, and doing so before a rival team from the other side of the mountain finds the summit.