Creating High Performing Teams for Collaborative Innovation

Reflections on the LUMA institute

Ethan Eagle 🟡🔴 Oct 12, 2023

https://direct.mit.edu/books/oa-edited-volume/4198/Does-America-Need-More-Innovators

The tale of the "LUMA Institute" - and a parable for the IEA and how Mercury could improve conditions for USAF / DOD.

Obstacles:
Lack of Literacy *(fluency) with methods (of innovation)
Refuge in the 'heros journey' of the need for independence (not coordination)
Lack of awareness about environmental factors (Solution focus over 'problem' focus)

Instead:
Hone individual skills (gain fluency) - inspire and cultivate cross- and interdisciplinary teaming - provide a creative environment to promote growth AND maturity.

We face an era of 'unbounded' complexity.  This is the wisdom in Jeff's *what if your innovation is what to stop doing / focusing on!* - it is a way to achieve simplicity!

Consider this eye-popping trend, (that can shift your perspective!) - From 2007 to now, we have produced more transistors annually, at lower cost - than grains of rice!

A literacy for innovation

Poor communication among team members trained in disparate areas, "If it's not my way, it must be the wrong way." (There's a 🔴 way and a wrong way)
Team members need to be on the same page. Yet we often speak different languages, different 'jargons' and we are all most comfortable with 'our tools' - and reluctant to come out of our comfort zones.

Looking: Systemic analysis, including looking for unmet and unvoiced needs.
Understanding how to analyse and synthesize based on systems models
Making- to envision future possibility
Advancing - moving an invention from idea/sketch to prototype solution.

Looking and Understanding = Watching the weather, Set a High Quality Target, Enlisting Deep and Diverse Domain Experts
= Assemble a diversity of perspectives, Engage in the Conflict.

Making + Advancing = Take 100 shots on goal, Learn from Experience and Experiments, How to Win a Bar Fight

Iterative loops through this process is critical to finding the 'right' idea, not just the first idea.

A core idea here is that the nature of each tools 'UI/UX' should COMPEL members to contribute.

[What's a CASE STUDY of SUCCESS?]

Team structure

Moving from section 2.5 to 2.6 it works to apply 'classic' problem solving frames... This will involve a team of experts in the domain, and a proven project management process.  But how to exploit the 'edges' of the bell curve?  "Science is the principle of belief that experts are often wrong."

People often THINK they are talking about the same thing, when they are not.  We have to resolve this 'Shrodinger's idea' paradox by using the 'show me' principle.  DO ONE.  We need to radically shorten the development cycle.  we look for strategies to 'tame' the complexity. But to do this, we can't just rely on OURSELVES, we need to find the people who are at the edges of our discipline and invite them to share with us what it is they are seeing.  Don't mistake your managers for innovators!

The Life Cycle of the Team

At their birth, these teams need some top-down direction. Coaches who can point them in the right direction, to the tools and literacy they individually will need.  At some point, when trust has developed, they need to test the boundaries.  As they evolve, they will test boundaries and rebel, becoming competitive with each other and the other teams.  Finally, wisdom and maturity settle in and true collaboration becomes a potential.

To succeed, we need to unlock a few key features:
1. Accelerated Trust - (don't trust your instincts, but trust another who sees the world differently)
- Increase the number of 'decision cycles' early on so you can see how others react in a given situation.
2. Idea Flow - Everyone talks in roughly equal measure.  Members meet face to face and are energetic.  Connections are between and among, not just with a 'team leader'
3. Members 'break' to go exploring outside the team to bring novel information back.
In particular, use imagery to promote 'sketching ideas' - sketches should be fast, cheap, disposable, and invite 'what if' riffs and variations.

The double helix (a hybrid idea)

Innovation has its highest potential at the intersection of two to four moving trends.  In the LUMA model, it can be at the intersection of a new business model and a new technology. These 'cross-over' events help teams to inform each other and lead to ideas tested in accelerated time frames.

What kinds of deadlines does the team think it needs internally - what kinds of 'radical' ideas are they pushing themselves to share in the environment (e.g. from the Jumpstart which was iteration 1.0 - did anyone use that output to probe the environment, or are we too scared?)

“The important thing is to put the experiment out, test it in the wild, but also [test it] with other thinkers that could help us explore and bring it back into the organization.”
*But learn early, learn often, and learn off broadway!

The value of creative environment.

if you can't change the individual, change the environment! behave more like an ant and less like a 'human' - if you build and navigate primarily from environmental stimuli, rather than 'control' (i.e. size and strength) - you can accomplish an immense amount by 'going with the flow'

“where it is, is WHAT it is." - always always always present context to surround ‘the thing’ you want to do. It is the context and environment that includes ‘should we’ and not just ‘can we’ information. See e.g. John Cutler Can/Should

Where does the most important information go?  How do you create a process to 'filter up'. There are many discussion tools for this, but make sure to filter not just for preference, but for 'vanillia ice-cream'

How to create your 'miro' KIVA (where each team member keeps their scraps!)
*Where an Idea should go should help identify WHAT it is.

A Kiva can be helpful during the initial phase, but other structures are needed at other phases of the project. Ask the team to consider the space, and how it needs to evolve over time!  What new things need to be added, and what old clutter can be 'archived'?

Some of the best design is not about what you can add to the idea, but what you can remove from the idea and retain it’s worthiness. Spend time killing your darlings, cutting as much as you are adding, and then cutting 10x more.