The best technology teams today are those who have a commanding understanding of the business of their organization and then are able to fast forward to enable the business prerogatives with innovative technology – i.e., competitive advantage.
Technologists are usually very interested in the latest “tech stuff” out there…truly superior technologists are those who can imagine how to apply the appropriate “tech stuff” to empower their businesses…this may mean leaving a widget or two in the dust, but the results will be creating value for the organization.
As you build your technology team, you need “doers”, those who want to apply known technology and get real satisfaction out of the completion an effective deployment can deliver. In addition to this critical attribute, I have found that in any group of technologists, there are those who really have a natural curiosity and constantly want to push the envelope and see how far a hypothesis can go…these are the folks who you want to cultivate as innovators.
There was a time when we could have robust technology R & D budgets to sift through possibilities and send only those with solid results through to deployment. Today, technology changes so quickly, having a formal R & D function may not be practical. Instead, you should be looking to hire members for your team who will produce results and will also naturally “test” new possibilities.
These folks have certain attributes to look for:
*Good Listeners – they need to hear what the business is requesting to make certain their curiosity stays the course of “value”;
*Domain Experts – they understand the business of the organization thoroughly and keep abreast of goals and visions;
*Consensus Drivers – they have credibility across the organization
*Collaborators – they do not think technology drives the business, they allow the business to walk arm in arm with any initiative
Oh, and they should be great technologists! Certainly not an afterthought, but as you can see, an innovator needs more than excellent hard skills, they need to be leaders!
How do you enable innovation on your teams? For team-building expertise, please contact us:
TRC at info@TRCollaborative.com