ICATRes

ICAT (the Intelligent Complex Adaptive Team)

Purpose of Research: To discover processes and methodologies that will help teams achieve maximum learning and performance in a changing, uncertain and complex environment.

Researcher: Dr. David Bennet, Mountain Quest Institute, 304-799-7267, or david@mountainquestinstitute.com

Teams and communities, units for managing relationships, are a central and fundamental element of organizational design. They have the ability to integrate and enhance cross-functional knowledge and cross-organizational perspectives to provide faster and more effective decision-making, problem-solving, and implementation. Early research culminated in development of the IPT Learning Campus: Gaining Acquisition Results through IPTs, a virtual toolkit developed for the U.S. Department of the Navy Acquisition Workforce. The underlying approach centers on systems thinking and taking a systems view of Integrated Product Teams. The conceptual model for IPTs identified ten key success factors that impact team performance: Team Leadership, Shared Vision/Approach, Team Collaboration, Empowerment, Technology Support, Team Learning, Enterprise Partnering, Feedback, Team Collocation, and Team size. Each success factor impacts the four major processes of an IPT: Innovation, Problem-solving, Decision-making and Implementation.

This model has been updated and a shorter version of this work is available below (published in Effective Executive, IUP, India, 2010).

A Model for Team Learning and Success (PDF, 31 pages)

The use of teams and communities in organizations can be likened to the industrial revolution, when the assembly line replaced the craft shops where craftsmen individually made the whole product. The assembly line sped up production by moving the products around and having different elements of the products added by different individuals in order to achieve the whole. These individuals, then, became highly efficient in a small part of the process. On the negative side, this process reduced the amount of learning each individual needed, limited their view and ability, and removed ownership of the whole product.

Today, where we have achieved a high degree of specialization in our career fields, teams and communities move information around much like the assembly line, with individuals adding their experience and perspective. The difference is that teams and communities provide a way to integrate and build individual pockets of knowledge. As information flows among members of a team or community, the individual has not lost it. Rather, an individual's knowledge is increased as each member contributes to, and gains from, the flow of thoughts, spreading ownership among all members of the team and/or community. Enter creativity and innovation, facilitated by the flow of ideas.

As we become a global world and the amount of available information increases, decisions are becoming increasingly more complex while simultaneously they must be made faster to ensure sustainable competitive advantage. It is impossible for a single individual to know everything needed to make the most challenging decisions. Effective teams are able to obtain and leverage knowledge that can significantly improve their creativity, problem-solving ability and decision quality.

The intelligent complex adaptive team is a living system highly adaptive and responsive to both external (environmental) and internal (organizational) stimuli while sustaining a cone of direction cohesive with stakeholder intent and the organizational mission. New organic concepts for teams introduced in this work include entanglement (see the research on Knowledge Mobilization), structural coupling, porosity, emergence, and multidimensionality.

See also the ICAT area of the Publications section.

Definitions

IPT represents "Integrated Product Team"

Learning refers to an increase in the capability to take effective action.

Performance means to take effective action that meets an objective.

If there is any part of this collection of thoughts that you do not understand or would like to discuss, please call 304-799-7267 and ask for David or Alex. If we are not available please leave your name and phone number and we will return your call as soon as possible. You may email Alex at alex@mountainquestinstitute.com