Enabling Conditions

By now, we have about 100 years of systematic research to rely on when understanding what makes a high performing team: what matters most for team performance is not the personalities, skills, or attitudes of individual members. Just because your team is composed of high-performing stars, it does not necessarily make a high-performing team.

The other significant insight from these 100 years of research is that teams are vulnerable to internal tensions and internal dilemmas. There are potential performance trade-offs between effective results and efficient use of resources, learning, and well-being. Getting along as a team can sometimes stand in the way of individual team members getting ahead in their careers.

If unmanaged, these tensions can undermine a team completely, causing it to break apart. Research has identified four core enabling conditions that help your team to thrive:

1. A compelling direction

2. A strong structure

3. A supportive context and

4. A shared mindset

A compelling direction

A compelling and clear direction is what energizes and motivates a team. Unless the team knows where to go, it cannot move forward. Setting a compelling direction also includes setting clear goals.

At its very essence, innovation implies a search for something that is not known. At the same time, it is also unknown what resources are required or how long time it will take to reach the goal. In this state of ambiguity, team members often have very different understandings of goals.

An example from research

A team was operating within a global manufacturer of heavy vehicles. All members of the team agreed that the most important goal was the development of electrical engines. Yet, within the group, different members had completely different understandings about how to get there. Some members of the team advocated in-house development, building core competence in this area within the organizations. Other members of the team advocated an open-innovation approach involving external partners. Over time, these different understandings of goals triggered an intense political struggle with devastating consequences for the organization.

In the context of innovation, a clear direction is set through continuous and frank discussions about where to go and how to get there. If the only thing the team knows for sure is that the direction will change, they should at least agree on that.

A strong structure

Innovation teams are in a state of flux. They engage in a search for something: not knowing what it is nor exactly how to get there. Being in this state of flux, innovation teams need to find structure wherever they can, for example, by:

1. Establishing routines about how to share information—but not about what information needs to be shared

2. Having clear roles—but allowing some flexibility in who takes on what role and when.

Structure creates predictability. Predictability, in turn, builds trust. And trust enables collaboration, information exchange, and creativity.

A supportive context

A strong supporting context is the third important enabling condition for teams. Having the right support means:

1. Having enough resources to get the job done

2. Having a performance structure that alleviates tensions within the team (getting along vs. getting ahead)

3. Ensuring that the result of teamwork lands well within the organization

Setting a support structure is rarely in control of team members themselves. For this, most innovation teams rely on senior management.

A shared mindset

Remember that in a team, members are dependent on one another. One member cannot get her job done unless another member does hers. Therefore, a shared mindset is essential.

This does not mean that everyone thinks in the same way. On the contrary, innovation work benefits from differences. A shared mindset means members understand each other, how they work, what goals are important to them, and how to best share information within the team.