Creative and Innovative Teams

Innovation does not happen alone. Building a creative and innovative work team increases the likelihood of successful innovation in sport organizations. When innovation is the goal, these elements need to be considered: leader-member exchange, participative safety, vision and goal clarity, support for innovation, task orientation, diversity of thought, social interaction, and resources, such as time and rewards. Innovation in a sport organization can include positive changes to process or structure, as well as new products. The process of innovation has been theorized as a three-stage process: idea initiation, idea adoption decision, and idea implementation. In that process, identifying and supporting an innovation champion has been shown to increase the likelihood of an idea’s success in an organization.