Forecasting collaboration capacity by driving output in product teams

It is no doubt that globalization and free trade have brought competitive advantages of Innovation Driven Enterprises (I.D.E.s) to new levels. More specifically, managers are focused on improving and maximizing team collaboration to both increase capacity and utilization of their in-house talent and optimize company throughput and output. It has long been argued that performance and output are attributed to leadership, management and/or recruiting. However, new management and cognitive theories argue that optimizing output and team performance is now more of a science rather than just a conventional wisdom; conceiving a winning team now involves both predictive and nurturing responsibilities. This applies to all fields be it military, product development, medical, business, engineering and others to name a few. This thesis focuses on the new field of Integrated Design Management whereby multidisciplinary, innovative engines or product development teams are becoming essential entities for entrepreneurial survival and versatility during economic uncertainty. How can a product designer, an engineer and a businessman work together efficiently'? What makes the team perform better? Are there any rules for engagement or does skill lead output? How are people selected as part of a team? This thesis argues that creating an optimal product team should not be a stroke of luck but rather the result of applying new management sciences and team dynamics to better recruit and build for collaboration in today's fast-changing and competitive world. I believe that studying the correlation between three variables: compassion, collective intelligence and output in Integrated Design Management (I.D.M.) teams can lead to positive inferences relating to team formation and competitive work cultures. Through methods of measuring the latter variables in addition to observing product team habits and recording interviews with individuals enrolled in the I.D.M. program at MIT, the following thesis maps predictive variables across a system for nurturing successful team collaboration and output. The model constructed to forecast product team output, produced an r2 of 0.57, setting a benchmark for future models. This research also provides a template for future applications across multiple industries aimed at conceiving more collaborative teams with exceptional skills whose members may have been more comfortable working in isolation at the expense of creativity and efficiency.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering and Management Program

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2017

Author dc:creator

• Halaby, Aceil

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Thomas W. Malone.

• Engineering and Management Program.
• Integrated Design and Management Program.
• System Design and Management Program.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/113514

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/113514