Thierry Picq

Opening the “black box” of collective competence in extreme projects: Lessons from the French Special Forces

Developing teams capable of completing projects in extreme situations is becoming a major challenge for a growing number of organizations. The notion of collective competence is increasingly being seen as a vital precondition for the success of project teams, particularly in extreme environments. However, we still know little about the ingredients of this collective competence. To partially fill this gap, we make use of the insights offered by the very particular world of the French Special Forces, which have been operating successfully for several decades in extreme environments. Based on an in-depth qualitative study of their project-based mode of operations, we detail the six main ingredients of the collective competence that underpins the activities of commando units in the field and insist upon the criticality of the pre- and postmission phases during which this collective competence is actively reinforced.

Le rôle des RH dans l'entreprise tendue vers l'innovation

La quete de l’innovation constitue un des enjeux majeurs des entreprises. Cet article s’interesse aux pratiques de management dans les organisations «tendues vers l’innovation », c’est-a-dire qui cherchent a susciter de l’innovation, de maniere continue et generalisee. Apres un etat de l’art et l’elaboration d’un ideal type managerial de l’entreprise innovante, les auteurs presentent une etude de cas approfondie (l’entreprise Creaholic) qui permet d’ouvrir « la boite noire » du management des tensions inherentes a l’ambition d’innovation. L’accent est ensuite mis sur la dimension paradoxale du management de l’innovation, dans la perspective du maintien delibere d’un etat d’instabilite continu. Dans une derniere partie, ils livrent un questionnement de nature critique sur les effets pervers – ou les risques – d’une mise en tension permanente de l’organisation et de ses membres.