Create an environment which promotes innovation. Provide the team with financial independence. The challenge is also to recruit and retain talent which believe in team work.

Nurture a supportive environment: Foster psychological safety, embrace diversity, encourage experimentation, and celebrate successes to create a conducive environment for innovation. Empower individuals and promote continuous learning: Empower team members to make decisions, provide mentorship, encourage continuous learning to enhance their innovative skills and problem-solving abilities. Balance innovation with practicality: Focus on practical outcomes and achievable goals while encouraging creativity and exploration to ensure innovative ideas translate into tangible benefits.

It is very challenging to lead a team of brilliant innovators .The first thing you should do is to ensure A two way communications which means always seek the feedback after each conversation or discussion. Also encourage each member of your team to think with its way of thinking .Do not impose your way of thinking on your team members .If you have a thought as a team member fight for it and try to convince the other person unless this thought will come against your company's vision or company's perception.Finally Make sure that each member is developing with time as his development will be the development of the entire team.

Foster a dynamic and open culture where diverse minds collaborate freely. Empower your innovators with autonomy, provide ample resources, and celebrate both successes and failures. Keep the vision clear, encourage constant communication, and adapt to the evolving nature of creative endeavors. It is not just about managing tasks; it is about cultivating an environment where innovation thrives organically…

Innovators need freedom to operate. There should not be too much emphasis on goals, timelines, formalism in their environment. More important is selecting the right people on the team in looking for individuals having already provided some level innovation They will do it again no matter what organization you put in place.

Not all teammembers show up to be innovative. Those who do need to be nourished in an environment that's a little different from the typical 9 to 5 desk. Innovative Teams need to feel like they're in a campus or a laboratory, and that it's their job to solve interesting and relevant problems. To achieve this, they need to be freed from administrative hangups, office politicking and even employee competition. It's also important to place the right controls to maintain discipline and fairplay. Such teams thrive in an environment of freedom, autonomy, acceptance and compassion. Remember, experiments fail too! And if your innovative team members have the confidence and safety of knowing you've got their back, they'll do better next time!

Ensuring you offer them opportunities to drive innovation in a field which excites them and a safe space to develop their ideas

To support and encourage new ideas and work in tendam with them.Keep motivating the team and nurturing a culture of innovation and creativity. Develop an attitude for not to leave until done.

I'd suggest the following: 1. Grant your team the freedom and autonomy to work creatively and independently. 2. Encourage experimentation, exploration, and idea testing without excessive restrictions or micromanagement. 3. Trust in your team's expertise, skills, and judgment to make informed decisions. 4. Show respect for differing opinions and perspectives within the team, valuing the diversity of thought.

Empowering and trusting your team are fundamental aspects of effective leadership, particularly when managing innovators. -Delegate Responsibility -Clarify Expectations -Provide Resources -Encourage Risk-Taking -Acknowledge and Appreciate Contributions -Provide Constructive Feedback -Create Opportunities for Growth -Promote Open Communication -Lead by Example -Celebrate Successes -Trust Your Team -Provide Flexibility

I would definitely emphasize ensuring innovators have access to the necessary resources to experiment and execute their ideas. Access to appropriate stakeholders/decision makers is critical for success.

Providing resources is crucial to helping a team of innovators. People are unique and have a variety of skills. In a team environment they need to know that their ideas, proposals, and products will be supported with resources. Whether it is with new software or hardware the best way to gain an idea of what your team needs are, is by asking them. Questions such as, "What do you need from me to make this project complete?" or "Who can I speak to at our partners to help collaborate with this project? Are questions that are necessary for leveraging an innovative team and their talent. You'd be surprised by how effective your team becomes when they are heard and supported.

This is key as a team of real innovators do not need a lot of supervision or micromanagment but the resources to help explore their ideas and fail quickly on the way to success. Innovation is not a straight line and while some constraints are helpful anything that hinders the free flow of curiosity and exploration will hinder innovation.

Set aside a reasonable budget but DON'T demand an immediate return. Innovation takes time and repeated failures before something truly great comes out. Set aside funds, don't expect them back, appreciate the investments that work out.

My experience comes from working at a big company that just started to implement a data-driven culture. I have seen countless projects get delayed but at least 4 to 6 months only because resources were limited given a poor planning. From limited computation capacity to unavailable data required to accomplished the objectices of the use case. Lesson learned, you can't have a team of innovators without the required resources and support.

Don’t be afraid to jettison team members that do not share the same vision or have ulterior motives. That’s not the same as preventing diversity of thought. Even one disengaged/misaligned teammate can slow or derail an effort. Not everyone is an Innovator nor does everyone want to innovate.

I'd suggest the following: 1. Recognize and appreciate the unique contributions and insights brought by each team member. 2. Promote a culture of openness, respect, and continuous mutual learning within the team. 3. Foster a sense of belonging and shared identity among team members, regardless of their differences. 4. Actively seek and onboard team members from various backgrounds, experiences, skills, and perspectives.

Don't keep people out because they have lower degrees or work in the wrong department. Innovation happens everywhere and should be gathered from anywhere.

Rewarding innovation will kill creativity as people will start focusing on whatever the reward is aimed for an stop thinking freely. While recognition is important incentives will reduce innovation in the mid-term. There is a lot of research that shows the adverse effect of incentives on innovation.

Plan for story telling and recognition. Collect artifacts as you progress to execution. Build and collect content along the way so you won’t have to back track or recreate important aspects of your journey. If your journey is long include recognition activities along the way. Once projects are completed many times people and resources are quickly deployed on something new. Don’t let this happen. Ensure that story telling and recognition are part of the project’s execution, not an afterthought.

Cultivate a Collaborative Culture: Promote collaboration among team members. Cross-disciplinary interactions can spark new ideas and perspectives. Use collaboration tools to facilitate communication and idea sharing.

Since the question is particularly about "managing" the team of innovators, I would suggest the manager managing the team of innovators to definitely read following books on this subject: (1) Leadership, Management, and Innovation in R&D Project Teams by Leon Mann (2) The Mythical Man Month by Fred Brooks, (3) How to build a great team by Ros Jay. In a team of innovators, in my experience, one big challenge is to manage egos, credits and priority of ideas. Also during our Management of R&D course taught by the retired CTO of LG-Philips JV, he specifically mentioned that his biggest achievement was to create a communication funnel from bottom-up, from lowest engineering level up to his, for prompt escalation of issues and flow of ideas.

Train the innovators on basic IP law - Dos and Don'ts. I would recommend them to read "Intellectual Property Law for Engineers and Scientists by Rockman". Specifically w.r.t. patents, innovators need to understand that its a legal document and there are legal repercussions for what may seem to be innocent action of self-promotion. Also they need to be explained the patent process in summary, meaning of basic identifiers like A & B series in the publication no., repercussion of claiming that they have a patent when its just "patent pending", how competitors scout and mine data via various social media platforms to track co.'s R&D activities. E.g. Confidential projects of the co. get disclosed on LinkedIn profile of their R&D innovators!

Two key characteristics of effective innovators are: The ability to think strategically and envision the potential benefit of a solution. A true innovation leader knows WHEN to stop worrying about THE HOW. The ability to story tell - to translate a vision of the potential benefit of an implemented solution - critical to motivate and drive passion for execution.

Ans, in my perspective: It is imperative to adopt a psychological strategy because innovators are typically overly sensitive. It is essential to provide unconditional liberty to execute the task because it will stimulate the ability for creativity. Splitting into different groups is essential since each innovator may adopt different methods to attain the task. Sufficient facilities with flexible assistants need to be provided to them. Frequently they have to encouraged with priorities for their efforts related towards the task since their efforts are valuable for to reap fruits in future. Since they value notoriety over other benefits, they should be publicly recognized for their efforts at the conclusion of each successful endeavor.

'Herding Cats' is a phrase I often heard during my tenure at the Center for Creative Leadership. I think it perfectly describes managing teams of innovators and / or creatives. Yes to the shared objective and to diversity, you can't go wrong with freedom to roam and personal expression, yet make sure you're gently coaxing everyone towards the end goal. The best creatives LOVE the design process, and can get as lost in it as Alice in Wonderland. The thankless job of getting them through the rabbit hole at the pace imposed by the project plan befalls the project manager, who will need a sense of humour and lots of flexibility to pivot when incidents occur. Best would be to love creatives, listen to them, or be one yourself!