How Neuroscience Improves Agile Project Management and Team Dynamics

  Agile   Innovation  

We would all agree that the mass production of highly innovative products would be nearly impossible without procedures to plan, execute and manage the work. Some would also agree that while innovation management with agile (i.e. agile project management) offers more flexible procedures for product development, procedures are still procedures with direct correlations to productivity and performance but also with inherent restrictions. In other words, while agile proclaims open innovation, there is still a need to stay in control.

Where we struggle to find consensus, however, is answering the question: How do we achieve the desired focus shift in performance management (from risk-averse, top-down control to self-organizing, risk-taking teams) in order to improve performance and accelerate innovation?

One suggestion: Applying neuroscience-based research (i.e. study of the brain and its relation to behavior and learning) to agile project management and team dynamics.

In today’s highly competitive market, shares and volumes can completely flip from one year to the next. A best-in-class player can completely lose its leading position as the game changes and markets shift completely. This shift is particularly visible in the context of innovation management. Organizations are realizing that to be sustainable in these markets, there is no other way than to provide…

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