Interplay among individuals is essential to the innovation process. While → individual creativity  is important, and even crucial to business, the creativity of groups is often even more important in today's era of → systemic innovation . The creation of today's complex systems of products and services requires the merging of knowledge from diverse disciplinary and personal perspectives. and crosspollination of ideas. → Leading companies synergize diversities and innovations.  >>>

Innovation – whether it be revealed in → new products and services, → value innovation, new processes, or new → business models – is rarely an individual undertaking. Creative cooperation and cross-pollination of ideas is critical.  >>>

→ Creative Dissatisfaction  >>>

In cross-functional teams, individuals from different backgrounds contribute by drawing upon their pools of tacit, as well as explicit → knowledge.  >>>

The tacit dimensions of their knowledge bases make such individuals especially valuable contributors to innovation projects; perspectives based on such knowledge cannot be obtained any other way except through interaction. Just hearing a very → different perspective challenges the → mindset of others sufficiently that they will open their mind to  new discoveries and → search beyond an obvious solution.  >>>

This is a reason why intellectually heterogeneous cross-functional → teams  are more → innovative than homogenous functional ones.  >>>

→ The Jazz of Innovation: 11 Guiding Principles