The Hidden Power of Messy Teams
Abstract
Conventional wisdom holds that innovation teams should begin their project with a clearly defined problem in order to increase their likelihood of success. However, a study of hundreds of ad hoc teams that formed to participate in a large global company’s annual innovation competition found that those with ambiguous problem definitions at the outset who were able to clarify the problems by the project’s midpoint had a greater chance of seeing their innovations successfully implemented.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Team Dynamics and Performance
Innovation and Knowledge Management
Design Education and Practice
Publication details
- Journal / source
- MIT Sloan Management Review
- Volume
- 67
- Issue
- 3
- Publication date
- 3 March 2026
- Language
- EN