-

The Science Layer

I call the presence of number of scientists in an organization the “science layer”.

 

Quality scientists bring a unique culture to an organization that may not blend well with other employees, setting up an organizational “layer”.  Good scientists are typically highly moved by data rather than persuasive eloquence or political power. Good scientists are well-trained skeptics, are not easily manipulated. Good scientists pursue the facts without bias then spread the facts around.

 

I have noticed in the past few decades that a science layer is forming in high-tech R&D organizations, in our government and even in the media.  As a result of this layer I think that certain scientists and certain theories are beginning to enjoy an untouchable status.

 

Unlike what is happening in the government and media around science I think the presence of a significant number of scientist employees “a science layer” in companies and Universities is a healthy phenomenon.  However, having this layer present in our organization offers unique challenges for leaders within these companies.

 

Below are 3 ways that the presence of a science layer can bring unique challenges to R&D/ Innovation teams.

 

  1. Scientists have a built-in decision analysis tool that many other employees do not, which is their ability to understand things from a fundamental scientific level in their chosen field, any leader who ignores (or doesn’t understand) what the science is saying around their R&D will not easily gain the confidence of his/her team.  This is true regardless of how talented or well-trained the leader is. Sometimes the only type of leader a team of scientists will work with are older promoted scientists who easily speak their “language”.
  2. The majority of scientists are introverts, this helped them to get their credentials, it helps them to focus on study and to learn constantly. However introversion is not always conducive to healthy team dynamics and collaboration, silos can develop intentionally and internal competition is inevitable.
  3. Knowledge has a tendency to cause arrogance, knowledge “puffs people up”, a life-time of study, several decades of University education under academics and earning your living from your intellectual abilities causes many (not all) scientists to develop a stubborn superiority complex, making leading these employees challenging.

 

Creating healthy organizations which have a productive science layer can be challenging but not impossible.  Science layers must be acknowledged, studied and led by the right people. The science layer creates unique cultural traits that should be studied and intentionally molded to maximize the effectiveness of this critical layer in our innovation organizations.

 

What are some other unique challenges of employing a “science layer”?

Comments 0
-

Innovate with PATIENCE

I have a tendancy to become impatient, however like many people, the older I become the more patient I become. Patience is useful in life, I see it in my 5-year-old, impatience makes him give up way too soon, impatience makes him treat people poorly, impatience causes him to lose focus and act on fear or anger rather than principles.

Patience also is useful for innovation organizations engaging in R&D, patience can sometimes make or break these types of organizations.

It is important to in grain patience into the organizational culture for at least 3 reasons:

  1. Markets for technology are on a different timeline than technology invention. We should invent continuously and (sometimes) wait for markets to demand the inventions.

  2. Impatient organizations give up on highly talented employees before they can contribute their full value. Some employees are brilliant, creative and intelligent, some of these employees develop slowly.  Their brilliance, creativity and intelligence are highly valuable but they may not be on the same timeline as are the markets.

  3. Patient organizations communicate better because they stay focused on their core principles longer, they do not get distracted easily by hot markets, by 2-year recessions, by technology fads, or by toxic politics that come and go like the weather.

So how do we create patience in our innovation centered organizations? I think there are at least two ways, first make patience a core value, leadership should all agree that patience is valuable to the organization, then document and communicate this value often, very often, more often then you think is reasonable.

Another way to encourage patience in employee mindset is by creating a culture that values people and teams that actually get to know one another. Leaders can create promotion criteria that rewards collaboration, rewards cooperation rather than cause internal competition.  Employees and managers who have relationships with one another are more likely to be patient with one another and put up with one another’s weaknesses.

Over time organizations will see a return on their investment in patient innovation.

Is your organization patient?

Please comment on this post on twitter @Colliers2 or email me at colliersengineering@gmail.com!

Comments 2
-

Innovation Teams – Categorized by Behavior

I like to categorize teams based on predominant behavior rather than function in order to highlight helpful or unhelpful behaviors for an organization. Below are three common types of R&D/ Innovation teams.

  1. The Siloed Team

  2. The Collaborative Team

  3. The Managed Team

The siloed team has strong technical contributors, they are very skilled technically, they are actively inventing and learning.  The siloed team tends to be competitive internally, the technical contributors hold back their insights and are reluctant to share what they know and what they plan.  This is both a strength and weakness, a strength because it often increases the quality of the science done by the team,  yet it is a weakness for the company because internal collaboration would significantly speed up time to market.

The behaviors of most in the siloed team is a product of both team members disposition and management’s promotion criteria.  The siloed team tends to have learning curves that move with the ability of the individual contributors. Managers often later compile learnings (learnings that are shared up) and then make business decisions. 

The collaborative team is characterized by team members who do not mind sharing what they are learning and sharing credit for team progress.  The behavior of the collaborative team is mostly result of the team members level of maturity and the ability of the managers who oversee it. The collaborative team learns the fastest for the company and ‘get to the point’ of new innovations as fast as possible.

The managed team is the third type of team. The managed team works well with their leadership and enjoys communicating up.  The meanaged team is open to sharing credit and the individuals on the team do not mind making their manager successful. A weakness of this team may be that those who are very strong technically may dislike this type of team and avoid it also corporate bureaucracies can sometimes thrive.

The goal of any science and engineering innovation team is to learn quickly and ‘get to the point’ to where new innovations thrive for the company or university and get there as fast as possible.  The collaborative team typically gets there the fastest. The siloed team can repeatedly learn the same things over again because they don’t take the time to learn from one another competing for that next promotion or award.

The biggest harm created by the siloed team is time wasted, time to market is the key to new innovations for a company.  The ability of an R&D organization to get from siloed to collaborative will have a large impact on how successful the company or university department will be over time, some may never get there and are simply wasting money, they may be the most intellectually talent people around but they are still wasting money.

Do you have tips for making a team less siloed?

I have decided to ignore all comments on this blog due to excessive amounts of spam so please tweet comments to @Colliers2 or email me directly at colliersengineering@gmail.com,

Adam Collier

Comments 0

Stay Up To Date With Email

​-

I use & recommend Bluehost, buy your domain and hosting here!

Get Adam’s From His Side Book Here! Its about Church Transformaton from Institutional Church to Living Ecclesia

Visitors

  • 53,671 hits

Connect on Twitter

en_USEnglish
en_USEnglish