It’s been said that innovation is a team sport. If that’s the case, you want teams optimized for innovation: people willing and able to take on multiple roles, comfortable living with creative friction and flourishing in 360-degree feedback. That’s a tall task. With these types of innovation teams growing in popularity, what can we learn about how they work cohesively?

This episode, our guest is Nusa Fain, an assistant professor at Smith School of Business, where she specializes in entrepreneurship and innovation management. She is also Director of Smith’s Master of Innovation and Entrepreneurship program.

Nusa Fain is joined in conversation by host Meredith Dault.

Also this episode, Smith Business Insight’s Alan Morantz looks at what the evidence shows about shared leadership. His segment cites the following research:

Sanfuentes et al; What lies beneath resilience: Analyzing the affective-relational basis of shared leadership in the Chilean miners’ catastrophe, Leadership, 2021, Vol. 17(3) 255–277

Robert, Lionel P. and Sangseok, You; Are You Satisfied Yet? Shared Leadership, Individual Trust, Autonomy, and Satisfaction in Virtual Teams, Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, Volume 69, Issue 4, April 2018, 503-513

Aube, C. et al; Flow Experience in Teams: The Role of Shared Leadership, Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 2018, Vol. 23, No. 2, 198–206

Sinha, R. et al; Shared leadership and relationship conflict in teams: The moderating role of team power base diversity, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Volume 42, Issue 5, June 2021, 649-667