It may be surprising that it has taken us until our fourth installment to talk about who is actually doing the work. However, experience shows us that without good leadership, structure and a clear mandate, it won’t matter how good the team members are – the project will not reap the return you’re looking for.
This is the fourth in a five-post series on how to build a cross-functional team that delivers. If you missed the previous posts in this series, you can find the first one here. Also, if you are reading this on LI or Twitter, you are reading only one third of a monthly newsletter filled with useful advice for innovators. If you’d like to receive the full newsletter, please sign up in the orange box to the right.
With the structure now in place, it’s time to carefully select the team members who will be critical to your cross functional team’s success. You may find that people will begin coming forward as word gets out that something good is underway in your firm. Before saying yes, however, you need to take a step back and be very selective.
3 Qualities to Look for in a Candidate
#1: Subject Matter Expert
The candidate must be a subject matter expert in at least one of the nine boxes of the business model canvas that you are planning to change as part of this project.
This criteria of subject matter expertise is important to the team, as it allows them to make fast, informed decisions and get access to the facts for those areas that are being changed and optimized. This person also needs to bring a global viewpoint (larger than the firm’s), which usually comes from being an externally validated expert.
To provide an example, if you are looking at changing distribution from a more costly direct model to a virtual model with leveraged support, someone who cannot look beyond the disruption of the existing team will have a hard time – but if they are familiar with state-of-the-art logistics, they will be able to contribute and create new unique solutions.
When it’s time to begin to do the validation experiments and eventual roll out, having someone to answer all the questions who is respected by the functional organization will be invaluable.
#2: T-Shaped Expertise
The criteria of T-shaped expertise, which we talked about as a good attribute for the leader, applies to team members as well. Thinking through the horizontal cohesion of the team members is a major tiebreaker when considering a team roster. If you have two equally skilled candidates and one is much better at getting quality results with peers from other areas, the choice makes itself. If you need a last tiebreaker, consider the ability to quickly come up to speed in an unknown area.
One non-standards way to ferret all this out is to periodically have events outside the workplace with some element of a scavenger hunt activity that puts everyone on equally awkward footing. In this environment, the soft skills of working with peers will quickly come forward.
#3: Top Performer
Be aware that you send a huge message to your organization in who you select for the team. Whether formally acknowledged or not, everyone knows who the best performers are in the organization, and if they are not part of the innovation work, it will be seen as a second tier activity.
If the team leader is having trouble landing the right team members from other functional teams, it’s the role of the executive sponsor to put some pressure on their peers, and if a nudge is needed, help close the deal. Once you have executed on a program or two, this will be a non-issue, as you’ll have people stepping up.
Bonus questions: (from recent clients & workshop participants)
How big should the team be? The core team should be as small as possible to minimize the communication overhead. The Silicon Valley rule of no team larger than you can feed with two pizzas is right on track here.
Can the team change members as it completes its work? My answer here would be that the core team should remain consistent, with the team drafting expertise as needed for specific line item needs.
What about the truly gifted individual who no one can get along with? In every firm, there are people who just aren’t cut out for group work, but are extremely talented key subject matter experts. I always recommend that they be utilized as a resource to the team, but not as a member of the core team.
I have a small firm and talent is really short. How do I access the people I need? I am a huge fan of reality when it comes to executing innovation, and if you are short on a particular skill, one of the first things I would look at is a potential collaboration with an upstream or downstream partner with a tightly shaped beta program.
I am curious to hear your feedback on team staffing and your ideas on best practices. Please send me a tweet @scottpropp or drop me an email.
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