Twelve steps to heaven: Successfully managing change through developing innovative teams

In this article we propose that work teams implement many of the innovative changes required to enable organizations to respond appropriately to the external environment. We describe how, using an input – process – output model, we can identify the key elements necessary for developing team innovation. We propose that it is the implementation of ideas rather than their development that is crucial for enabling organizational change. Drawing on theory and relevant research, 12 steps to developing innovative teams are described covering key aspects of the team task, team composition, organizational context, and team processes. Someof the greatest innovations over the past century have sprung from the creative juices of individuals.Where would the world be today without, say, the invention of controllable, powered flight by theWright brothers, or the discovery of penicillin by Sir Alexander Fleming? But these are exceptions to the rule. The overwhelming majority of successful innovations come not from individuals striving heroically in a shed, but from team efforts orchestrated systematically by enterprises. And more than anything, what these corporate entrepreneurs have tended to exploit is not so much invention or discovery, but change. (‘‘Innovating’’, 2003, p. 3) The exploitation of change through innovation is achieved largely through the work of teams embedded in organizations. In order to manage and implement change we therefore need to understand how to develop innovative teams. In this article, we review relevant research and offer 12 prescriptions for developing such teams