Thus Teamwork Can Be A Catalyst For Innovation And On The Other Hand It Can Be An Inhibitor For Innovation. Critical Thinking

In definition a team is an organized group of people who work together cooperatively and interdependently to meet a set goal or purpose. Innovation is the process of coming up with new ideas or coming up with new solutions that meet new requirements or needs of the customers. The fashion industry is a good model of how innovation is integral to the success of any business. Most successful companies in this industry reinvent their brand every season. Through this, they bring out products that the customers didn’t even know they needed, often igniting such a high demand that the previous season’s fashions become obsolete. Thus there is need for innovation in every industry or else they will soon be obsolete facing certain death.
Innovation in most cases is not a single person’s endeavor but rather an adventure that requires different and collaborated skills. Teamwork is thus inevitable when innovation is in the picture (Dayan & Di Benedetto, 2009). This has been proven with time, with examples such as Hewlett and Packard the HP team, John Walker and Brad Bird the team behind Pixar and other well-known teams. In the team each person brings forth his skills thus diversifying the outcome of an innovation. For instance, Bill Hewlett brings his technological creativity in the Hewlett-Packard partnership with a business executive David Packard who is a savvy manager. Thus teamwork brings together creativity, management skills, marketing strategies and knowledge to the mix which is recipe for success as far as innovation is concerned.
Innovation is not just about coming up with new ideas and then marketing them, innovation is about the team’s organization and operations. A well-organized team is a sure way of having a successful innovation. To ensure success in an innovation project the team members should be empowered and involved in the decision making process. The team’s leader should play a role of facilitator and coordinator so that he incorporates the skill of every member of the team in the project fulfillment. A well-organized team is an important key to innovation success (Freeman, 1982).
The positive halo effect on a team is another way through which the success of a team’s innovation project can be achieved (Crane, 2012). When a company’s financial performance is on the rise, the company’s image is good and everybody wants to be associated with it. The team members in such a company will thus reflect on the good relationships they had in the team. Also they are motivated and thus work even harder. This ensures innovativeness in the team and thus success.
While teamwork might ensure success in innovation, it can also lead it’s to doom. Teamwork might bring in skills that are contradicting in the mix. If the issue of left-brainers and right-brainers is not well utilized in a team, then failure will be a sure outcome. Some teams won’t work at all for instance the partnership between Apples’ Steve Jobs and his earlier partner John Sculley. Some teams also have been on a history of temporary separations, shouting matches and some members have intense discord leading to catastrophic failures. Also a negative halo effective will ruin a team’s morale thus killing the effectiveness of a team to innovate (Crane, 2012). Another major shortcoming of teamwork in innovation is separations. When a successful team breaks then the innovation project they were working dies as well. The management of a team in innovation can lead to the team’s failure to innovate. The chain of command and who does what scuffles in a team has always lead to failure.

References

Crane, P. (2012). The halo effect. Dunrobin, Ont.: Lachesis Publishing.
Dayan, M., & Di Benedetto, C. (2009). Antecedents and consequences of teamwork quality in
new product development projects. European Journal Of Innovation Management, 12(1), 129-155. doi:10.1108/14601060910928201
Freeman, C. (1982). The economics of industrial innovation. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.