创新战略：填满研发漏斗

Gartner for Research & Development Leaders 3 Steps to Boost theInnovation Performanceof R&D Teams Spurring innovation is key to creating long-term growth and sustaining a competitiveadvantage. But how this can be encouraged and incentivized is less clear. This researchprovides three steps for R&D leaders to create a nurturing environment to boost theirteams’ innovation performance and output. Overview Key Findings •Gartner’s five markers of innovation potential are behavioral competency groupingsthat are indicative of an employees’ innovation performance. These are results seeking,customer empathy, idea integration, influencing and risk taking.•R&D project teams tend to be behaviorally homogeneous, meaning these five behavioralcompetencies are not always represented on teams. However, individuals’ innovationpotential is higher when they work with a behaviorally diverse team.•Building an R&D environment that nurtures these five behaviors maximizes innovationperformance. Recommendations To cultivate the innovation performance of the R&D workforce, R&D leaders must: •Build more behaviorally diverse project teams to boost their performance, but mitigatethe natural frictions of these more diverse teams.•Recognize and reward innovation behaviors of R&D teams to boost team performance.•Build a leadership environment that better nurtures innovators by reexaminingperformance incentives and developing key leadership competencies in R&Dmanagers. Introduction R&D executives desire a workforce with more innovators who deliver value to theenterprise — employees capable of identifying pressing unarticulated customerproblems and creating novel solutions that resonate internally and in the market (see Figure 1). However, most R&D associates have deeptechnical expertise and a passion for technology, but this technical competency is notindicative of innovation potential. Gartner research shows that five behavioral markers in particular are highlypredictive of employees’ innovation potential, as shown in Figure 2: •Results seeker —Result seekers persist to achieve personal and project goals.•Customer empathizer —Customer empathizers champion the customer perspective indeveloping ideas and solutions.•Idea integrator —Idea integrators explore and pull on ideas from a wide range ofdisciplines and fields.•Influencer —Influencers listen, consult and communicate proactively with others.•Risk taker —Risk takers take calculated risks rather than missing opportunities. After assessing the R&D staff (and potential new hires) for these five behavioralmarkers, R&D leaders should cultivate innovation performance in their staff byfocusing on these areas: 1.Create optimal teams by redesigning them to be behaviorally diverse.2.Strengthen R&D innovation culture to boost innovative performance of project teams.3.Build a leadership environment that better nurtures innovators. Analysis Create Optimal Teams by Redesigning Them to BeBehaviorally Diverse Conventionally, leaders in charge of creating teams look for cross-functional diversityand staff teams with individuals who will drive results. Such project teams are likely tobe functionally diverse but behaviorally homogeneous. When assessed for innovationpotential, behaviorally homogeneous teams — teams that excel at three or fewer of thefive markers of innovation — have significantly less innovation potential than behaviorallydiverse teams that exhibit different innovation markers (see Figure 3). An employee’s innovation potential is shown to be higher when working on a behaviorallydiverse team, as the diversity of perspectives strengthens ideas and helps avoidgroupthink. Additionally, having a comprehensive representation of the five innovationmarkers on a team ensures that the team has a variety of competencies to enablesmoother execution at various points in the innovation life cycle. While a greater diversity of innovation markers maximizes the individual’s and overallteam’s innovation potential, it can also have a downside, as employees with differentinnovation markers may experience friction during the life cycle of a project. Given thispotential source of conflict, R&D leaders must take into account the relationship dynamicsof employees with different innovation markers when designing teams to maximizeinnovation potential. An overview of natural affinities between team members with different innovation markersis shown in Figure 4. For example, a results seeker’s desire to demonstrate a quick winmay be at odds with an idea integrator’s desire to broaden the scope of an idea andspend more time refining it. This friction can reduce the team’s value delivery, as differingopinions can lead to disagreements that can potentially derail the project. R&D leaders should be mindful of such tensions that can arise between their employees.To manage friction between employees on behaviorally diverse teams, R&D leaders shouldhelp their teams appreciate and value the behavioral dive