Here are ten tips to nurture a strong partnership between innovators and the core business:
- Articulate a motivating vision of victory in which both the dedicated team and the performance engine win.
- Highlight the reality that the dedicated team and the performance engine are mutually dependent.
- Create a common enemy: the competition.
- Reinforce the values that the dedicated team and the performance engine share, even if they are simple and universal values, like a commitment to integrity.
- Make the division of responsibilities between the dedicated team and the performance engine as clear as possible.
- Anticipate resource constraints created when the shared staff must simultaneously handle the demands of innovation and ongoing operations.
- Gather data to understand whether fears about cannibalization are valid or unfounded.
- Alter incentives. Specifically evaluate "ability to collaborate across organizational boundaries" on performance reviews.
- Use influential and collaborative insiders at points of interaction between the dedicated team and the shared staff.
- When the innovation initiative succeeds, share credit liberally, with both the dedicated team and the shared staff.
via blogs.hbr.org
