How do you make sure that all of your innovation projects deliver valuable outcomes? How do you set innovation teams up for success?

It has been the main motivator to develop our online T4 program. Dr. Floor Blindenbach knew it could be done.

Once the online program was developed, we then needed teams to prove it. So earlier this year we recruited innovation teams of law firms to participate in a research study to prove the value of the approach and to further develop the technology behind the program. We are very grateful for the CIT|CRCF Funding that we received from the state of Virginia and that made this research possible.

We followed the progress and performance of these teams while each team participated in the online program and worked on bringing its idea to practice. As of October 1, the teams had stayed with the program between 7 and 25 weeks, and all delivered concrete valuable outcomes as a result of participating in the program.

All the participating teams delivered concrete outcomes within six months, varying from approval of a $1M investment to a first paying client. In the sample, there were four teams that decided their project was not worth pursuing further. By timely stopping the project, they saved their organization's resources. By capturing the lessons learned, they made sure that the insights they gained could be used by the organization and future teams working on the same issues. As a result, those were valuable outcomes too.

As it turns out, the biggest difference our program makes is in the mindset of the participants. The structure and weekly support from an experienced innovator that comes with the program help to move teams 3x faster. In addition, the program makes it safe and worthwhile to explore something new. Both are game-changers. The program enables teams to seriously investigate an opportunity to see if it is (not) worth pursuing for reasons A, B, and C. And because both are acceptable outcomes, participating in an innovation project becomes risk-free. Knowing what not to do, can save the firm thousands of dollars, so that is a valuable outcome too. It makes that all teams in the T4 program are set up for success.

Curious to know how these results came about? In the video below, we share the initial findings of this study and the experiences of the 10 law firm innovation teams. The video explains what the teams accomplished and Dr. Blindenbach shares what we learned from tracking these teams, while they were progressing their projects.

Watch the video below to learn how to make sure that all innovation teams are set up for success and deliver valuable outcomes in a matter of weeks. You can access the slide deck here.