CIO Tools: Innovation Cultureteam selection and the effect on innovationby Jim Vaselopulos - Partner, PSC Group April 2010

The goal of innovation is to come up with new ideas, new processes or new thinking that produces results that are improved from what we are conditioned to expect. In many ways, it is the old paradigm of making 1+1 equal to 3.

This is so cliche that people often laugh when it is introduced into a conversation. It is like so many other tired sayings such as “work smarter, not harder.”

But innovation is just that - the combina-tion of different ideas to produce even better ideas. It is the exact reason why so many busi-nesses and experts strive to engrain innovation into the fabric of their organizations.

People often mistake innovation as an indi-vidual effort. In this model, you identify and enable those few “gifted” individuals who have the creative capacity to innovate and give them the room (time, resources, etc.) to do so. It is a fact that you can have success with this ap-proach. There are individuals who are very in-novative in every company.

Unfortunately, this approach does not foster an innovation culture and offers limited results.

So what is the alternative?

What is the better option?

1+1=3

A Revelation in St. Louis

On a recent trip to St. Louis I made a few very important observations. First, I had for-gotten how impressive it is to visit the Arch. Second, I have to mention that every parent should take their children to the City Museum in St. Louis - it is an amazing place for kids of all ages. The last observation was during an IMAX film of the Lewis and Clark expedition commissioned by Thomas Jefferson in 1804. The revelation I had from this movie was that a great deal of the success of the expedition had to do with decisions that were made before it even started.

Thomas Jefferson was smart to pick Meri-wether Lewis. In turn, Lewis was smart to pick William Clark to be his co-captain. Likewise, their collective choices for the expedition team, including their guide Sacajawea, contributed greatly to their success. It was the composition of the team that led to their overall success.

High Performance Teams

Modern business books and moguls all spend a great deal of time on the issue of team selection. Jim Collins, of Good to Great fame, talks about getting the right people on the bus. Jack Welch from GE set the standard for creat-ing high-performance teams. Similarly, the Lewis and Clark expedition was a high-performance team.

So what does this have to do with Innova-tion? The answer is actually quite simple.

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If you wish to foster innovation in your company it starts by deeply understanding your talent pool and forming smart teams.

The key factor in segregating your talent pool is understanding the personality types that, when combined, produce innovative ideas.

Finding the Talent

The personality types that foster contagious and new ideas as defined by Malcolm Gladwell in his book The Tipping Point seem to fit the con-cept of innovation as well. Gladwell identified “mavens” (information specialists), “connec-tors” (those who link people & ideas) and “salesmen” (persuasive & charismatic commu-nicators) in his book.

A single maven may come up with good idea, but it is logical to think that several mavens could produce even better ideas. If, however, you add a connector, your odds of developing a truly new idea that combines two or more disparate concepts is more likely. Sup-posing your dream team develops an innovative new idea, though, it still must get funded. That is where your salesmen come into play to figure out how to monetize and sell the idea.

This extension of Gladwell’s work may be rather simplistic, but it maps well to all of my experiences with innovation and high perform-ance teams. It also provides a context in which to identify and segment your existing talent.

Do the Math

Let’s revisit the concept of 1+1=3. As-sume that we are not dealing with numbers, but objects. In the picture below, how many M&M’s do you see?

Now let’s assume that these M&M’s are people. We have Red, Green and Brown. These are three individuals in your company - perhaps a connector, a maven and a salesman. You can now see how a connector is really the real-world equivalent of a mathematical opera-tor. This is how you achieve a sum that seems greater than the parts.

Making it Cultural!

Much like the success of the Lewis and Clark expedition, the establishment of an inno-vation culture begins with the establishment of well-balanced teams designed for the task at hand - innovation.

In the end, it is the recognition of personal-ity types and the deliberate formation of teams that makes this approach something that will impact and improve your company’s innovation cul-ture.

1 + 1 = 3= 3

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Jim Vaselopulosoffice: 847.517.7200mobile: 847.274.9637jimv@psclistens.com

Jim Vaselopulos is a seasoned business executive with domain expertise in Financial Services, Marketing, Manufacturing and Service Industries. Jim works closely with many firms to help align business needs and technology for competitive advantage.

His many roles include Partner at PSC Group, LLC, interim CIO at several organizations and strategic business consultant to many others. His speaking engagements include regional executive events, various podcasts, industry organizations and technology-centric educational institutions such as the University of Illinois.

Jim holds an Engineering degree from the University of Illinois and an MBA from Marquette University.

I t ’ s a l l i n t h e w a y w e l i s t e n . ™