Innovation Passport: The IBM First-of-a-Kind (FOAK) Journey from Research to Reality

8. Ensuring the Work Gets Done

Researchers, developers, and others dedicated to the creative side of innovation tend to be fluid in their views of what is possible and what is impossible, the reality of business frameworks, and the role of authority. They have spent much of their lives finding holes in arguments that usually go unchallenged. They color outside the lines.

And while some are ambidextrous, working easily in the world of imagination and the world of processes and forms, many are not. This creates natural tension on any FOAK project, and this conflict must be managed. The project manager and the leadership of any innovation project need to balance between imposing too much structure (with the resulting loss of creativity and breakdown ...