Team innovation — skunks, pop-ups and hybrids

Managing Director Daryl Twitchell has published what is likely to be the first of a number of pieces on innovation on the Huffington Post.  The article co-authored with Amy Radin and Kevin McDermott focuses on the need for great talent:

It’s easy to name the characteristics of a great innovation team: experience, depth of skill, entrepreneurialism, collaborative aptitude, passion, tolerance for ambiguity and diversity along every dimension. Blending those attributes is a talent all its own. But first you have to find your team.

The article goes on to talk about three different ways to organize corporate innovation — skunks, pop-ups and hybrid.  Our experience helping companies with innovation is that themes like these provide a framework that we can utilize in helping to understand how best to effect change given the culture and circumstances that influence the situation.

Photo by Dan Dzurisin