In a past life, I had the honor of working on a special project team that was responsible for executing a company-wide initiative. Will, the team leader, was an extraordinary gentleman who knew his stuff. He knew leadership, too.
Will had assembled an eclectic bunch of high performers and knew how to lead the group in churning out remarkable results.
So remarkable in fact that the team was asked to remain together and take on another assignment. Everyone agreed to do so and again exceeded corporate expectations for the work product.
As one might expect, corporate headquarters asked the team to handle a third initiative.
To everyone’s surprise, Will said, “No, it’s time to disband.”
Some thought he was foolhardy, others said he was just plain crazy.
A few understood the wisdom of what he did.
7 reasons to disband the team and drive innovation
Will offered up seven reasons why disbanding the team was the right thing to do:
1) If you only work and interact with people who think just like you do, you stop growing. You gotta mix things up.
2) Innovation is a team sport, not the domain of a singular group. Don’t let institutional mindset rot set in.
3) Maintaining surprise and magic with an ongoing intact team gets harder and harder as process, practices and protocols slip in (no matter how hard you try to keep things loose). Sometimes well-oiled machines get stuck in a rut.
4) Share the spotlight. Provide opportunities for others to be involved, test their abilities and network across the organization.
5) New problems need new teams with new skills and new ideas. One size doesn’t fit all; meaning no matter how good the skill sets are of a hand-picked team, those skills may not be useful in solving a wide range of problems.
6) Innovation benefits agility which benefits from fresh eyes.
7) Special projects assignments are short-term. It’s time to return to the fold and re-join your old team. It’s time to change who holds the role of project champion. That’s what improvement is all about, letting others share in fostering the climate for innovation.
What do you think of Will’s list? Are there items you would add, change or delete?
Please share!
Drawing source before quote: morgueFile.com
Excellent post! It’s a courageous and wise leader who sees the benefit in taking a step back and starting again. As Jim Collins says in “Good to Great,” it’s crucial to have the right people in the right seats on the right bus.
If the leader doesn’t have the vision or courage to disband and reassemble a team for the good of the project (and, ultimately, the good of the organization), there will be more steps back than movement forward.
Angie – thanks for stopping by and enriching the discussion! Wise leaders do assess both the short- and long-term and must make the adjustments you reference…even if there’s temporary pain involved.