The role of our innovation team is to conceive, champion, and carefully develop a new approach that has not been tried before. Real commitment over months or years is needed, in an environment that may be full of skepticism, even resistance, as you move forward. The team’s composition and dynamics therefore emerge as among the most important variables and potentially a reliable predictor of success.

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Every individual exhibits a particular balance of team-role preferences that inform the approach he or she takes to project work, the choices of task he or she will gravitate toward, and what he or she will find rewarding or a slog. A good mix of individuals with varied preferences will do much to ensure a well-composed team that is able to perform at a high level through all the different stages of the project, and not get stuck or derailed. Assembling a team whose team-role preferences are known and broadly complementary is therefore a vital part of success in an innovation process.

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