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Small but strong

Keeping the central innovation team lean

Creating a large team generates the need for processes, meetings, coordination, etc. This relates to my earlier blog “Process kills innovation”.

In many corporations where innovation needs to be stimulated, there is a need for a central accountability to provide focus, increase communication, alleviate barriers and track innovation efforts across the organization.

There are several benefits of keeping this HQ team very small, e.g. 1-2 people:

There are obviously a few challenges to have a small team: workload (not possible to delegate), succession planning (all knowledge is concentrated in 1-2 people), scaling (both innovation stimulating initiatives and innovation experiments). This can be partially addressed by providing temporary, rotating assignments, e.g. a one year development assignment for high potential employees (who in turn become great innovation ambassadors in their next roles).

As Albert Einstein said:


“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”

So, as Innovation Leader, I consciously kept the central innovation team very small, with rotating support from colleagues in developmental assignments (a very successful win-win).

More reading: Is it necessary to have a dedicated innovation team?

What do you think? Please share below!

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