Risks

A hyper-competitive world economy poses new problems to even high-flying companies. Failure to create innovative teams risks:

• Extinction:
  
• The more successful your company is, the more likely you have a bull’s eye on your back.
• A competitor may be planning at this very moment to put you out of business.
  
• The threat of outsourcing:
  
• Any internal team that’s not providing added value has a risk of being outsourced.
• Any function can be outsourced in today’s world.

Any company undertaking fundamental change to achieve extraordinary outcomes faces internal resistance:

• Resistance to change:
  
• Anytime you introduce change into an organization you’re introducing disruption.
• “Antibodies” within the organization will attempt to suppress the change initiative.
• Even more so if you’re “upping the ante” and expecting bigger outcomes.
• High turnover:
  
• There is always a threat of significant turnover given people’s discomfort with change. Some can and should be persuaded to stay; others will self-select to depart.

Opportunities

Companies that are successful at harnessing creative teams have the opportunity for:

• Greater innovation:
  
• We’re working in an Innovation Economy. The game is to out-innovate the competition.
• Innovation is not just about products or services. The opportunity is to find new, different, more effective and more creative ways of doing anything.
• Innovation can involve your fundamental business model, your IT processes, your organizational design, your systems and procedures – all the way down to how you conduct your meetings.
• Competitive advantage:
  
• In a competitive, global economy, what separates the best from the rest is having teams that are highly creative, innovative, adaptable and agile.
• Such teams are able to take the heat and harness conflict. 
• They are aware of their brand distinction, their unique contribution. 
• They “take play seriously” and they are willing to “fail fast.”
• They have the audacity to shoot for the moon.