Gamification in The Innovation Process… The Future of Collaborative Innovation

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ContestspigitIn March, Boris Pluskowski (@bpluskowski) and I gave a webinar on Gamifying the Innovation Process with great success!  Many people tuned in to listen to us talk about how Spigit is at the forefront of the intersection of gamification and innovation, and how we have designed proven methodologies to compliment our platform on how to create this experience within your enterprise.  It is becoming more and more popular to create game-like, problem solving, innovation competitions within global enterprises.  Gamified innovation competitions are a way to solicit game-changing ideas, engage thousands upon thousands of people in the innovation process, and create an experience to develop them into solutions that is engaging and exciting.  Through creating a game like experience for all employees and / or the public to play, you can tap into crowds to get in the game and stay over time.

Leveraging the power of people all around you to bring the best ideas to the table…that is Spigit’s mission and it is the basis for the methodology we have developed around gamified innovation competitions.  To learn more on how we design, implement, and manage enterprise gamified innovation competitions with some of the top companies in the world (Cisco, Intel, Citi to name a few), click on the link to our webinar here below.

http://www.spigit.com/gamification-in-the-innovation-process/

Why Collaborative Innovation Leads to Successful Change Management Initiatives

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resistance-to-change-cartoonMost likely you have experienced an organization change or new initiative within your company, department, or role.  For most, change can be intimidating, uncomfortable, and down right scary to people… and getting people to actually “change” is a tough, uphill battle.  People have trouble seeing the positive in change.  Visualizing just how it can truly make a difference or perhaps what it would actually look like on the other side once the change was made is difficult.  Inevitably, people naturally tend to cling to the known rather than embrace the unknown.  This is why organizational change is one of the hardest jobs out there, because people just don’t like it and will do anything to resist it.

But what if you were asked to contribute in a meaningful way to how that change would happen rather then just having it pushed down your throat?  What if you were to help shape what the change would in fact be?  Would you be more likely to give it a chance if you were given a chance to make it your own?  In my experience and especially as of late, it has become more and more apparent to me that meaningful change must comes with meaningful engagement.

I find myself having many conversations with companies who are trying to create meaningful change and are discovering that engagement is the answer to change adoption and acceptance.  Giving the opportunity to every employee to share, discuss, and ideate on a potential change is critical to gaining insights into the success factors and struggles when driving a large scale organizational change initiative.  Rolling out a large change management initiative with positioning an innovation challenge prior to the rollout has proven to help educate employees on the change and understand their fears or even excitement about it.   Being able to have people share and develop ideas to further the cause or initiative will get their skin in the game and make them feel part of the change experience.

I feel there are a couple reasons why collaborative activities really do support the main tenants of corporate change:

  • Educate and Advocate in a Meaningful Way  - When asked to engage, there is usually some context as to why you are being asked to do so in the first place.  Providing this context in a way that will also communicate the change opportunity will help to educate them on the change and drive to turn them into advocates when engaged.images
  • Break Down the Silos to Drive Greater Adoption – By getting employees engaged, irrespective of location, hierarchy, or organization – you are breaking down one of the oldest inhibitors to change – the silo.  Both big and small corporations face this issue of only working with those that are near you or next to you.  Giving people the tools to go beyond their physical walls will help to drive change in itself.
  • Push to Think Differently – Getting people out of their day to day role for just even a little bit might create a greater opportunity to embrace change.  Asking them to take some time to contribute to a collaborative effort will give them the opportunity to turn on some new habits and turn off some old habits that prevent change.
  • Gain Acceptance Early - If you want people to accept a new initiative, you must make sure they are involved in the process in some way.  Whether it be in planning the change, making a decision, or providing an opinion, it is all important to gain acceptance early by giving people an opportunity to get involved in the change in their own way.

Additionally, there is such value to those managing change to see people engaged in the process of change to know how to adapt the message to influence adoption and behavioral change.  While being immersed in understanding the change, you are also being asked to contribute to the change going forward or engaging on how you are or will embrace that change.  Keeping your staff involved and actively working is a success you can continue to reap the benefits of an engaged, collaborative workforce.

Bottom line, if people do not feel they were part of the development of new methods or they do not see clear value to them, they will stick to old practices. By keeping employees involved, there will be a greater change of adoption and support of the change. Giving them the opportunity to get involved will help to drive that acceptance.  Whether it be a new process, new acquisition, new brand, or new product, change management is leading the way for collaborative innovation activities centered around adoption and acceptance of a change.

Could one of the greatest fears of innovation be… success itself?

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Coco-Chanel-Success

There is a great quote by the fashion genius, Ms. Coco Chanel, that states “Success is most often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable.”     Many of the successful innovation programs I have had the great fortune to work with start with people that absolutely embody this quote.  But some companies today struggle to drive innovation, not because they lack the talent or resources or motivation, but because they’re afraid of success.  As my esteemed colleague, Anthony Ferrier, noted in his recent Spigit webinar on the Fear of Innovation, fear is a very real thing when it comes to change and innovation.   Although every company is different, there are many similarities when it comes to cultures, hierarchies, and of course.. fears. But many times, I find the biggest fear that exists is…success itself.

The fear of success is a fear that is very real.  More typical fears are those of managing the program, dealing with failures of products or services, and living up to the promise of delivering something new and different. But what I sometimes find is something that would be considered atypical.  What ends up being at the forefront of the minds of those involved is something that is quite unusual…. what if it’s successful?!   When talking with companies about what they hope to accomplish, many times the fear of success will become more and more apparent.   We are not as open to sharing our fear of success partly because on the surface it does not make sense. It is, however, a very common fear.

Here are some reasons why some are fearful of success:

  • What will success bring? – attention, loneliness, new enemies, isolation
  • How will I manage it? – more work, responsibilities, or criticism
  • What will be expected or happen next? – expectations, assumptions
  • How will I deal with the power of success? – more respect, credibility, and authority

Addressing the fear of success is all about saying “we can be that great and we will be that great”.  Putting together a comprehensive strategy and plan will combat the fears that often time will stifle progress.  Setting goals that are even the most basic in nature seems rather daunting, because then, what happens if we actually achieve those goals and show tremendous value? And guess what, when done properly, it happens… you reach and better yet, exceed, your goals.   Realizing that this is a very real scenario is the time when the fear of success becomes very real.

People who have innovation skills start their innovation efforts confident of success and in their abilities to accelerate good ideas to market. Confidence is contagious and sweeps more people into its fold. Actually,  confident innovators gain skills and capabilities at an ever increasing pace, while uncertain or fearful innovators lose ground and fall further behind creating more uncertainty and more fear.  Fear and uncertainty creates a vicious cycles, while confidence creates a virtuous cycle.

So, take a step back and breathe when your biggest fear is success itself.  Realizing that it is important to anticipate and manage success will make this very real fear not so scary.

Entertainment in the Social Age: Get Your Crowd Involved!

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pop-culturetvIt is no secret that I am somewhat obsessed with pop culture.  Everything from tv to movies to music… I absolutely enjoy the entertainment experience.  The digital age has greatly disrupted the way entertainment companies create and deliver content to their consumers.  The entertainment industry including broadcast, cinematic, music, and interactive entertainment is in the midst of this revolution. New technologies have forever changed the way in which consumers access and consume entertainment content. These results have been due to advances in technology, content, processes and the overall business from budgets to box office revenues.

There is a convergence happening among traditional entertainment sectors which allows for the potential of unlimited new ideas. For example, in the overlapping areas of broadcast and interactive entertainment, television, which was primarily a passive viewing activity is using interactive features and causing a shift towards “Social TV.” This shift opens up secondary channels that allow for television viewers to interact with each other. By using social media utilities like Facebook and Twitter, viewers can provide real time exchanges while a program is being viewed. Similarly, the cinematic and broadcast sectors along with others like interactive and mobile, are also converging.  Although there are huge leaps in technological advancement, from a content standpoint, the front-end processes of how ideas are sourced and subsequently developed has had minimal change.  In an age where consumers are able to react and respond to content so quickly, there is an opportunity for changing the way ideas are sourced, selected, and developed.  Changing the way consumers are engaged in the holistic process creates opportunities for a better consumer experience, greater adoption and consumption.entertainment-topic-page

The opportunity for  how ideas are sourced, selected, and developed has been adopted by many industries and sectors over the past decade. Leveraging the crowd both inside and outside of organizational walls provides a way to access new and fresh thinking.  By sourcing, selecting, and developing ideas with the crowd along the way will yield greater opportunities for cost savings, revenue potential, and brand enhancement.  In the entertainment industry, acceleration of an initial concept to the consumption by the consumers is critical to satisfying customer needs and realizing value.  In film and television, the pipeline from idea to a released film or program can be long and costly.

future-technologieshollywood-nokia-lab-dissects-mobile-entertainment-dnaFilm studios and independent film production companies have the challenge of receiving a lot of ideas for films, but can take risks in funding only certain projects. Ideas or concepts, whether they be original or adapted, are pitched. But what if we were to find new and exciting ways to accelerate the pace of the pipeline, better develop ideas in their initial form, and limit risks and exposures by having a greater understanding of consumer preferences?  Using crowdsourcing as an effective technique as part of the pipeline process is an effective way to create new opportunities in a space that is ripe for disruption.

Crowdsourcing:  The Crowd Is There, Are You?

Leveraging the crowd presents an opportunity to get to know your consumer by engaging them through the process of idea creation.  I believe there is a new model of sourcing ideas for film and television content emerging where the potential audience has the opportunity to be engaged from idea conception.   Crowdsourcing offers many benefits that may compliment traditional development. There is a need for new and fresh thinking as the current process is sometimes “by chance” or by “who you know” as to which ideas move forward and is limited only by the few minds in the position to make a decision. Specifically, crowdsourcing offers three distinct benefits to the entertainment business:  ideation, validation, and collaboration.

1)     Ideation: Generate Fresh and New Concepts

2)     Validation: Gain Insights and Knowledge

3)     Collaboration: Accelerate the Development Process 

What if you could use the wisdom of crowds in combination with in-house expertise to evaluate the best ideas? Or better yet, what if you were to ask consumers directly to get involved? What if you could turn the film development and production funnel on its head and involve your movie-going customers from the start?

Having the tools and capabilities to engage the crowd in the process of innovation is integral to accelerating the pace of innovation and having the insights to make informed decisions.  Competitors are never far behind so the ability to innovate.  Speed is key to being relevant among competition and distinguishing yourself as a leader or a fast follower. In the entertainment industry, timing is everything.  The right timing could be better predicted if social techniques were leveraged to include crowd insights, right? Right.

Teams Matter: Find and Create the Right Team, Fast

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Ideas are the life blood of every company and of our world.  Ideas can come from anywhere, and through social innovation technologies and processes such as Spigit, global companies around the world empower crowds of people to do just that, innovate.   Many companies have made drastic changes in terms of the leaps and bounds that have been made in really changing the culture of the organization to be one that is collaborative and open.

Many companies had the stigma of sticking to the status quo, but with the rapid pace of innovation and competition today, companies can’t afford status quo.  Finding ways to enable and accelerate innovation of new products and services is the key.  By way of social innovation, companies are harnessing the power of people to gather insights, perspectives, and solutions to take ideas to market at a pace that is much faster than ever before.  Crowds of people are representing themselves amongst a sea of others to showcase their skills and passions, but how can you bring them to work together in ways that takes advantage of those skills and passions?

Even though there is an “I” in Innovation, there is also a “T” – and it stands for “Team”.   Individuals emerge from the crowd helping to identify and develop their ideas in a way that showcases themselves, but the real power of innovation is never about the individuals, it is about the various individuals who touch that ideas from development to eventually implementation.  Teams are critical to moving ideas forward and accelerating innovation.  We now have the power to share and collaborate like never before, but as our technology and opportunities for collaboration have expanded, many times we still concentrate on the individual that contributes. The new world of social has been able to give us a gift , the ability to find the passionate and skilled individuals to form the right teams.

Many people associate brilliant ideas with a brilliant individuals, and we have done this as a society since, well, forever!  This is a common misconception.   You have Thomas Edison with the light bulb, Henry Ford with the car, and current pop culture suggests the late Steve Jobs is the innovator of all things that are cool, right??  But if you think about these innovators and the inventions they are associated with, there were many people that were critical contributors to how these innovations were developed and shaped. Apple would have never been what it was without other co-founders such as Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne, or Tim Cook and others at the helm today.   The reality is that in innovation there is never just one individual, it’s always the team of individuals.
Teams have a vast capacity to drive an organization beyond its boundaries. When managed well, teams stimulate creativity and innovation, make an organization more adaptive, and tap into a company’s intellectual resources to drive results.  Innovating takes teamwork, but how do you create the “dream team” to drive innovation?  How can we better identify and enable the right individuals to come together to accelerate innovation?   The Spigit technology and processes take advantage of the very notion of a “team”.  Just by way of participation and activity, we can identify and form the right teams to accelerate the development and eventual implementation of ideas.  I believe there are four fundamentals to establishing an effective team for innovation:

  • Passion - Will keep the motivation, the stamina, the momentum up – Dynamic, Energetic, Fun,  Motivational
  • Knowledge – Will have the analytical mind, critical thinking skills, knowledge of the subject matter, market ability
  • Influence - Will have the funding, the clout, the ability to enable
  • Mindset – Will have an open frame of mind, risk tolerance, and open-minded will keep possibilities possible
All in all, building a team can be quite a bit like dating. You can spend your time looking in the places where you’re “supposed” to find someone compatible, and then get into a fender-bender on the freeway with the person who turns out to be the world’s most ideal fit.  Now with technology, you don’t need a fender-bender or some random event to make it happen.  You can leverage the power of technology, process, and collaboration to find ideal fits.   You can’t ever predict where these people will come from, but now you can detect who they are and what type of role they could play.  Using technology such as Spigit to help identify the most passionate, active people to help carry the ball forward could be the differentiator in developing that next break through opportunity or beating competitors to market.
But there is increased value in having crowds actually execute and take action at scale.  We’re allowing people to sponsor ideas or fund ideas through crowd sourcing.  Successful ideas are not born in secret: they emerge from open and vigorous dialog around new information, and then they are actively pulled into the market by a commercialization team rather than being pushed by an ideation team.  Through this open dialogue, Spigit technology can identify people’s passion, knowledge, influence, and mindset just by way of their participation in the activity.  All of the variables that play into the discussion will begin to show emergence of a person’s talent, expertise, and perspective that will start to make them as an individual standout.  This is the opportunity to then connect individuals based on these different characteristics to identify individuals that together can build the right team to take a certain idea forward.
We at Spigit are continuing to innovate on the next generation of innovation science focused on things that will change the way people think about how to drive innovation in organizations and social algorithms that continue to make sure all of the right people are collaborating at the right time.  Crowds can spot opportunities, generate ideas and help you choose the best ones, at scale.  But teams, they are the differentiator in taking ideas to reality.  To innovate well, teams must be permeable, inviting the outside in and engaging the broader community to transform an idea into a new product or service in the marketplace.  Finding the right mix of people to take ideas forward is how to accelerate innovation, and we now are just beginning to scratch the surface on how to more effective identify those “right” people.

Spigit Webinar Follow Up #3: Answers to Your Questions Continued

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Q: Michele: Great focus. Do you believe to be a real SuperHero in an organization you need to be a combination of all of these examples and using their best traits, at the right time, to be both successful at innovation and make yourself irreplaceable to your organization?

A combination of superhero traits is what is critical to accelerating innovation in your organization.  Essentially it is all about identifying those individuals that embody those traits that can help develop and move forward ideas within the organization.  Assembling the “Justice League” within your company is what you are striving to create.  By way of creating innovation activities that engage and excite – you will naturally find these types of superheroes that already exist.  Using a technology like Spigit, you can easily find those passionate people. This creates an opportunity for them and for you to take their passions and apply them to accelerating new innovations and breaking down typical barriers.

Q: What are some good metrics for measuring participation and engagement?

There are many other metrics, but I hope this will give you some insight into what is important to measure when looking at participation and engagement.

  • % of invitees visiting the site
  • % of participations (against # those entering the site)
  • % of demographic (based on locales, organizations, hierarchy, experience levels)
  • average visits per visitor (stickiness)
  • # of people voting and commenting only vs. ideas only

Q: Which are the three most valuable innovation metrics?

This is all dependent upon your stated objectives and goals.  With that said, here are three that I feel are always in play when it comes to measuring the value and longevity of innovation programs.

  • Projected / Realized ROI
  • Stickiness of Program (return visits)
  • Conversion Rate of Ideas (average # of days to implement)

Q: How do you strategize innovation portfolios in fast moving consumer markets?

Engage the consumer!  There is a tremendous opportunity to have an open dialogue and co-creation opportunity with consumers.  One of the more intriguing opportunities of the social media phenomena is consumer co-creation.  People who would normally expect to just purchase a product or obtain a service are electing to provide their time and talent to developing new opportunities for companies.    Open innovation helps to prioirtize and validate the investments of the future.  Not everything can be solved or accelerated in this manner.  There is still an element of consumer surprise that companies must retain to come up with the innovations that consumers don’t yet know they need. Ahem… like Apple.  With that said, open innovation can directly impact customer loyalty, brand, and of course, revenues.

Spigit Webinar Follow Up #2: Answers to Your Questions Continued

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Q: How do you define innovation? How large and disruptive does an idea need to be to be considered innovative? Game changing vs incremental

My definition of innovation (as you will see all over this blog) is something “new” or “different” that is of value to someone.  Value is considered something that you would pay for, adopt, change for, or support.  I am not of the believe that disruptive innovation is the only type of innovation that organizations should pursue.  If you wait for that one big idea, then you get nothing else of value done.  And to be honest,  I don’t think you can really say if an idea is considered “disruptive” until after  it has been implemented.  How do you know it is disruptive until someone ultimately considers it so from a consumer perspective.   That is the true tale of whether or not the idea is disruptive… when it becomes something that fundamentally changes they way a current product, process, or service is ultimately delivered.  And when demand and adoption is generated, this will ultimately disrupt the current models.

Q: How do you get a client to agree that something is innovative?

I don’t think there is an exact way to do this actually.  I mean, if a client is delivered something new and different that is perceived as valuable, then isn’t that innovative?   People honestly worry too much about what classifies as “innovation”.  Innovation comes in all shapes and sizes.  It could be as small as removing complexities from a process or as big as changing the way the entire process works.  All of this could be perceived as innovation – as long as it is valuable to the person who is on the receiving end.  If it is new and different, if it creates impact, it could be classified as innovation.

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Spigit Webinar Follow-Up Part #1: Answers to Your Questions

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Hi Everyone!

During the course of our webinar last week, we had a flurry of questions come in.  As promised, I will answer 5 questions every week over the course of the next couple weeks to share my thoughts and perspective on the questions you asked!  Also, have any other questions?  Hit the comments!

Thank you again to those who participated in the webinar.  We will be posting a replay on the Spigit website later this week.

- Michele

Questions from the Webinar:

Q: Can Spigit aid in the motivation of a sales force?

Great question. Sales people are on the front lines and typically understand the consumer at the greatest level from inside the organization.  Leveraging the sales insights both on identifying needs and validating needs/demand is critical in understanding whether or not there is a potential “buyer” out there.  Spigit’s platform can do both – 1) provide an outlet for Sales individuals to share and collaborate on current state opportunities and 2) tap into the knowledge and insights of the Sales force to validate the pursuit of ideas to further understand market and buyer potential

The next thing to think about in terms of a sales force, it is how to motivate a sales force – how do you motivate the sales force to actual participate!  That is a whole other topic of discussion…. will post on motivators soon.

Q: Do you consider process improvement as innovation?

Absolutely.  My definition is that it all comes down to creating something new and different that is of value to someone. There are different forms or different extremes of innovation – but fundamentally it is creating new value.  Process improvement, most times, is a way to create incremental or disruptive changes to an otherwise established process. These changes could transform the process, creating new opportunities in delivery or ability to free up time to invest in other areas.  I don’t know about you, but to me, this is innovation.

Q: Do you have any advice on how to win over naysayers within the senior management group?

It is all about results and success.  People who don’t believe exist because they haven’t been personally affected by what you are doing.  It is too far out of reach or the concept seems too nebulous to them, so automatically they dismiss it.  It is all about reframing the opportunity in order to make the proper pitch.  In my experience, the hardest part of social innovation for people to understand is the term “social”.   Generically speaking, people are starting to embrace the term “social”, but most importantly, understand it is actually valuable.  But for those who are not there yet, it is important to frame the opportunity appropriately.  Remember – rather than stating the words “social” or “collaboration”, focus on “problem solving”.  If you can find ways to show results, impact, and influence to their organization based on the activities, this will help not only “quiet” them but perhaps turn them into an advocate.  Naysayers exists based on preconceived assumptions, so it is about dispelling those assumptions through results.

Q: How do you measure loyalty specifically as affected by innovation activities?

You can measure loyalty a couple ways.  I will focus on two 1) through continued participation in innovation activities 2) through loyalty to the company through their employment.

In regards to participation and engagement, as part of having recurring innovation activities, you will build “loyal” participants.  These “advocates” (as I like to call them) are the ones that are always willing to share their opinion and participate just because they have been invited to do so.  You will see this advocate network grow over time and these “advocates” will be the main reason you start to build a loyal base.  People that become passionate tend to tell their friends and co-workers about it, and with their influence, your loyal network will grow naturally.

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Thanks for Joining Spigit’s Thought Leadership Webinar with me!

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I can’t thank you enough for those that took the time to join us today for Spigit’s Thought Leadership Webinar where I presented on the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Innovation Superheroes.  We had a tremendous turnout – over 250+ people attended our webinar!  I appreciate all of your great feedback and appreciation.  As such, I will be doing them on a rotating basis with my other strategy colleagues here at Spigit.  There were some fantastic questions asked by you – and I want you to know that although I didn’t get to address them all on the call, I will address them here on my blog over the next couple weeks. Spigit will also post them on the website.  Also – feel free to add additional questions in the comments section!

Again – Thank you and Happy Innovating!

- Michele

Questions from the Webinar:

  1. Q: Can Spigit aid in the motivation of a sales force?
  2. Q: Do you consider process improvement as innovation?
  3. Q: Do you have any advice on how to win over naysayers within the senior management group?
  4. Q: How do you measure loyalty–internally and extermally–specifically as affected by innovation activities?
  5. Q: How do you define “”push within reason”"?
  6. Q: How do you define innovation? How large and disruptive does an idea need to be to be considered innovative? Game changing vs incremental
  7. Q: How do you define innovation?
  8. Q: How do you get a client to agree that something is innovative?
  9. Q: In broad based innovation programs, how do you manage the invevitible disappointment for most of the participants?
  10. Q: Many thanks for your comments, however, we are very concerned about successful Change Management (+ Organizational Development)? Are you involved with those activities or do you partner with CM/OD consultants?
  11. Q: Would you please address what Spigit’s role and activities have been with some of the engagements you’ve described (or others)?
  12. Q: If you are involved in grassroot implementation, we are interested in understanding the type of change management models you may be using.
  13. Q: Can you concretely quantify the result of using gaming to come up with the next $100M idea
  14. Q: There is a lot of hype around using gaming…..very hard to quantify! Any successes would be helpful!
  15. Q: Can you give us a focus on Resilency. Superheros all “”get knocked down”" sometimes but seem to always get up to defeat their challenges.
  16. Q: Michele: Great focus. Do you believe to be a real SuperHero in an organization you need to be a combination of all of these examples and using their best traits, at the right time, to be both successful at innovation and make yourself irreplacebale to your organization?
  17. Q: What are some good metrics for measuring participation and engagement?
  18. Q: What if the development group has a history of missing deadlines by years – when it’s the opinion of sales and implementation?
  19. Q: Which are the three most valuable innovation metrics?
  20. Q: How do you strategize innovation portfolios in fast moving consumer markets?

The Importance of a First Impression. Key Factors in Articulating Your Idea.

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Happy 2013!  Hard to believe we are upon another year, but it is certainly a year of promise and excitement when it comes to innovation.  So to kick off the new year, and the new you, I thought it would be great to focus on the importance of making an impression.  There is great truth to the phrase “You never get a second chance to make a first impression”.   images2First impressions, whether it be when interviewing for a job or going out on a first date, often times will be an indicator of whether or not you will meet again.  Every day we encounter numerous first impressions, whether it be the commercial on your TV screen or the billboard you passed.  It is so important to capture the attention of a person instantly in the hopes that he or she will take the time to hear what you have to say.   Same philosophy applies when articulating an idea – first impressions are everything.  Making the all important first impression with your idea will hopefully result in the decision for someone to invest further in the great ideas you have presented.

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When articulating an idea, there are some key opportunities for you to create that lasting first impression.   Being able to create a great first impression for your idea will not only put your idea in the best light, but it will also place you there as well.  Grabbing and maintaining attention will be a key factor in whether they want to invest in the idea or not.   Your first impression will be the difference between obtaining new opportunities to enhance career growth and not being given a second thought.

So how do you make a positive first impression with your ideas?  I have some suggestions on how you can make the best first impression.  This might be the easiest and the hardest concept as ideas are often like marathons, taking time to go from concept to implementation.  In order to make that ideas happen, you must have passion, confidence, authenticity, and a true desire to make it happen.  The following suggestions will provide a strong foundation as you build your creative idea from its infancy through to its maturation and successful acceptance and implementation.

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Be Passionate 

Putting your best foot forward always requires having a passion for the idea.   Being able to convey your point of view with impact and authenticity is key.  Being able to exude passion about the idea will inspire others to be interested, and most importantly, peaking someone’s interest may be all you need to get the idea off the ground.  Sharing your passion for the idea will help convince others why they should be passionate about it as well.

Ideas can come from one person, but to implement an idea takes a team.  Having the passion to communicate your desire to see the idea come to fruition and make an impact in your life or in the lives others is something you must continually communicate.  Given that it will take a team to implement your idea, you have to inspire others to have the same passion to help take it forward.  In order to successfully inspire people to take action, you should meet a need they have so they will feel emotionally connected to the concept.  Remember that a primary goal is to inspire others while continuing to inspire you.

And most important, be prepared to be a Champion for your idea!  Be passionate, champion it, own it, make it happen.

  • Key Questions to Consider: 
    • Why is this idea important to you, the company, and the end consumer?  
    • Why should this be important to them?
    • How could this idea become a passion of someone else’s?

Convey Impact and Value

Details are important, but the right descriptors are even more important.  Value will be the ultimate driver of whether the idea is successful. Value (not just beauty!) is in the eyes of the beholder, so understand what is valuable to the person to whom you are pitching your idea so you know how it may best be received .

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If you can create or leverage that burning platform, the chance of your idea being implemented will be much greater as it is serving an immediate purpose.  Make sure the value is apparent to the reader, quantifying the benefits and value will get their attention. Think of the opportunities it will create – the breath, the depth, and the reach. Formalizing the details, opportunities, and needs are important in positioning your idea.  You should strongly communicate the value that will be received by the person impacted by this idea.

  • Key Questions to Consider:  
    • What need does this meet?  
    • What is the target audience?  
    • What is the market opportunity?  
    • How does it fit into our strategy?  
    • What is the growth or people opportunity if the idea was implemented? 
    • How would this idea impact the buyer?

images5Keep it Simple

Communication is everything so having a way to easily and simply communicate your idea could make or break moving forward. When you represent things in understandable form you diminish uncertainty and avoid confusion.  Making it simple to communicate and understand will deliver the impact you desire.   The idea should be concise, but detailed enough to have the reader understand critical elements such as the who, what where, when, why.  Simplicity in communicating your idea should also be a balance of sharing creative elements but also highlighting practical elements of implementation (e.g. cost, feasibility, complexity).  B

  • Key Questions to Consider:
    • Can I explain this idea in 60 seconds or less?  
    • What is my elevator speech on how to explain the concept and impact of my idea? 
    • How complex is the idea to implement?

There are many factors to a great idea, but keeping a focus on passion, value, and simplicity will put your best impression forward.  You may never get that second chance, so make sure to make the first impression the best you possibly can.  Taking the time to consider these factors could make all the difference in hearing “yes” or “no”.

 

 

 

Placing a bet on ideas: The “know how” on prioritizing ideas

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In organizations, soliciting great ideas from every part of the organization is usually not the problem.  The question is, how will you act on ideas to deliver impact and realize a return on investment?  It seems every organization ultimately struggles with this question and how to overcome the many hurdles that are associated with it.  This is where priorities come into play.  Prioritization is key in determining investment of time, resources, most importantly funds.  But what are the fundamentals to prioritization?  Here are five key principles of prioritization to essentially place your bet on ideas that will ultimately have a “winning” outcome.
  1. Focus on a few -  When you overcommit resources and spread them out over multiple efforts, it is less likely that ideas will be implemented quickly or even at all.  To ensure ideas get the proper attention and commitment necessary to drive them forward, try to focus on a few and get them underway before you tackle anymore. Spreading yourself or your team too thin can dilute efforts and hinder the change you desire.
  2. Find work streams that already exist - If something already has a roadmap or focused effort, chances are there is already some money behind it.  Being able to locate budget to help fund ideas is critical.  Plugging ideas into identified work streams will give ideas a better chance of success by already having committed resources, time, and funds.
  3. Know what is feasible and what isn’t - A critical question to ask when prioritizing ideas, is this something we can take on quickly or would this require outside resources?  Asking the question is important to prioritization and may cause you to pause a bit.  Although many desirable and necessary ideas will require outside resources or acquisitions to make a reality, it is not an accelerated path.  If you are looking for some quick wins, focus on what you can and what is in your control.
  4. Establish a separate funding model for ideas “outside” of the box - Not all ideas will fit in a natural work stream, so accounting for that upfront and obtaining some funds to commit to new and exciting opportunities is important.  In an environment where all funds should be accountable to a direct expense or revenue-generating opportunity, it is important to convince those with the authority and power of approving budgets of the unforeseen opportunities that may come about in the future that could be game-changing to the organization and will require commitment through investment, resources, and time.
  5. Governance is key – Create a governance team of diverse leaders that can assess and decide the next stage for the idea.  A governance team comprised of various individuals across different spectrums of the organization is very important to raising all issues and opportunities that might be part of the idea.  Most importantly, having this diverse governance team in place will provide the proper amount of visibility and support for ideas that are worthy of further investment.  This is a critical model to focus on prioritizing and moving forward with valuable ideas.

Prioritization is a tough but critical component to innovation.   Everyone has an opinion and not everyone will agree on the priorities, which is why having a solid approach with many considerations is important.  Having some critical components in place will help to push the organization to think more critically and comprehensively about the greater portfolio of ideas before moving forward.  Using an approach that considers all five principles here will help to appropriately place a “bet” on ideas that will return value to the organization.

The Rapid Spigit Advantage: Powering TEDxUSC with Spigit

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Greetings from the USC Campus….

On May 4th we arrived on the USC Campus with one goal, to provide a compelling and captivating experience to further develop game-changing ideas.  I joined my colleagues Janice Rager-Kennedy (@jrag2009) and John Johnson (@jhjohnson) where we facilitated a Rapid Spigit event.  Even though the day started off with Janice and I (aka the Lucy and Ethel of innovation) trekking across the entire campus in our high-heels and luggage full of  iPads, we were more than excited to facilitate a RapidSpigit event at the Innovator’s Brunch held for the brilliant and innovative experienced professors at USC. A RapidSpigit is a short duration event that leverages Spigit’s crowdsourcing capabilities to enable rapid brainstorming and assessment of ideas. The event is a live and interactive event that is both enjoyable as well as productive.  Here at USC, this was an outlet for select professors and fellows (10 in total) to pitch their current projects to gain feedback and insight from other tenured professors and experts in attendance.

While a brunch was a great opportunity for networking, using a Rapid Spigit as part of this event provided a new way interact and engage with each other around ideas that have the potential to change the world.  While this was also a lightweight competition for prizes and recognition, the true prize was the rich experience about 60 professors and other USC professionals had during this engaging and interactive session.  We received fantastic feedback from participants on how this event truly celebrated great ideas, insights, and game-changing innovation.  To learn more about Rapid Spigit, see below or click here.

In addition to this, I was invited to attend TEDxUSC. TEDxUSC is associated with TED conferences.  In March of 2009, TEDxUSC became the very first TEDx event ever held in the world.   Now over 600 different TEDx events held around the world annually, so kudos to the University of Southern California for pioneering this localized event.  The theme for TEDxUSC 2012 was “A Journey Through Spheres of Influence.”    The event was all about taking a break from reality to engage withbrilliant speakers, captivating performances, amazing new technology, and thought-provoking short films.  Over 1200 people were in attendance at the event. TEDxUSC 2012 featured twenty performances and talks over three sessions. Each session was carefully constructed to take the audience farther along “A Journey Through Spheres of Influence”.

It was an inspiring day, full of great ideas and insights.  Each speaker was so unique, but there was one great consistency.  They all were pioneers in their space by thinking differently and pushing boundaries.  Although luck sometimes plays a role in success, I truly believe these individuals became “lucky” as the result of confidence and conviction about their passion.  I drew so many parallels from their experience that apply to my own way of thinking – whether it be personally or professionally.  If you ever have the chance, definitely attend a TEDx event or better yet, find a way to get to TED in Long Beach, CA!  It is a day that will truly inspire you…

More about Rapid Spigit:  

The Rapid Spigit advantage is: “What if you could get strategic insight from any employee or customer group in 2 hours or less? Let us demonstrate how technology can enable any group to a form a directed, purposeful crowd. Assisted by Spigit facilitators, your audience will transform into an activated crowd, a crowd with extraordinary and specialized capabilities that are the sum of the expertise of everyone you invite. With Spigit Rapid, you choose the audience and provide the space, and we’ll do everything else.”

  • Delivers insights beyond what a typical focus group, employee survey, or brainstorming session can achieve
  • Utilizes the psychology of crowds and the entertainment of games to make ideation an experience people will talk about for weeks after the event
  • Shows how crowds of connected people can create amazing insights, even in 2 hours or less.
  • Encourages fast and simple play, allowing each person to participate with their own iPad
  • Leaves your crowd begging for opportunities to collaborate

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Join in on the SOCIAL train: Innovating in a Social Age

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“Never before in history has innovation offered promise of so much to so many in so short a time.” – Bill Gates

The promise of so much to so many in so short a time is essentially what social media has given to the world.  And this promise offers so much. By enabling us to think differently about how we approach not only conversations and connections, we have also been able to think differently about how we innovate.  Being able to harness the ability to engage crowds to share ideas and perspective in a dynamic, collaborative environment is a real opportunity.  But how do you leverage social media to innovate?  Through the use of social media tools and platforms, the opportunity is to reach everyone, include everybody, and fundamentally convert these real conversations and dialogues into value for the organization.  Using social innovation technologies like the Spigit platform, organizations have been able to transform social dialogue and conversations into actionable ideas.

Innovation is constantly highlighted as a fundamental priority to every organization’s business, but the question still remains on how to do it and on how to do it right.  Many books have been written and processes born, but no matter how many books you read or processes you implement, there is no one-size-fits-all innovation prescription.  Creating opportunities through social media to generate conversations and to also derive value through idea generation is a real opportunity that is still in its infancy.   It is about generating engagement and value through social media to connect communities of employees, customers, and partners to drive innovation and increase productivity, while turning data and discussions into actionable intelligence. Companies are just starting to realize the true value in developing a social innovation capability within the organization, and now is the time to create that competitive advantage.

Social innovation, through the use of social media and social technologies, is really about creating a 21st century organization that engages crowds, drives value, and defines the brand through innovation.  Leveraging the power of Web 2.0 and enterprise social networking technology, the Spigit platform creates opportunities for people to share and collaborate on real issues and opportunities to participate in the process of innovation.  Being able to generate ideas that lead to new products and services is just one of the many benefits organizations experience when enabling social innovation inside and outside the enterprise.  Creating a program to enable the social innovation experience in the enterprise is where your competitive advantage starts. But where should you focus your efforts?  Here are 10 suggestions to get you started on your social innovation journey…

  1. Engage Everyone
  2. Create Options and Opportunities
  3. Recognize Uniquely Talented Individuals
  4. Create Perspective
  5. Make It a Fun Experience
  6. Know Where Your Best Ideas Come From
  7. Flatten Hierarchy
  8. Focus on Value-Driven Collaboration
  9. Make Everyone Feel Like a Superhero
  10. Take Action on Ideas

As you can see, it is about engagement and value.  Creating engagement is about enabling a holistic and exciting experience, not another task or check-the-box item.  Generating value is proving that through engagement, we have the ability to glean insights and ideas that will take the company further.  With the Spigit platform, we’ve been able to create an experience that not only is engaging for the person that’s participating, but also insightful for the organization. It is what we call the 360° experience. This 360° experience is about looking at all ways a person engages.  Understanding behaviors and motivators is the most important element in creating a truly engaging and valuable social experience. It also helps to accelerate and evolve the process of innovation within the enterprise.

Social media and social enterprise technologies have created a new way of approaching innovation. It’s not about implementing an overnight process, but it is about enabling organizations to fundamentally change the way they work over time to inspire creativity, to encourage participation and involvement, and to enable processes that will help to nurture and develop ideas from inception through to implementation.  Social media has created the opportunity to leverage the power of people in ways that accelerate, develop, and push conversations to actionable ideas.  Creating those new and exciting experiences to engage people is important to driving a social innovation program.   The real question is, how will you harness the power of your social media programs to create valuable opportunities for your company?

Powering an Innovation Challenge: Six Quick Tips for Success

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There is power in the phrase “ask and you shall receive”, but sometimes asking is the hardest part.   If you can find ways to ask powerful questions, it is amazing what you will receive.  With today’s technologies, such as that found in our Spigit platform, it is easy to bring people together from across different locales, continents, and networks.

Devising a strategy to effectively tap into these networks is important to yielding the best results both from a participation and value perspective.  Leverage the power of social networking and crowdsourcing to “ask” your people to contribute their ideas and thoughts in tackling your biggest business issues.  Regularly launching challenges will provide opportunities to find innovative ideas and approaches to real problems.

Here are some quick tips to be successful in launching large, enterprise-wide challenges or even small, more focused ones. Garnering the power of your people to help address business issues, you might be surprised as to what ideas they have in tackling them.

1.        Identify the business issue – Clearly articulate the business issue in a way that will help generate ideas. Be Focused, Be Specific, Be Articulate.  Finding the balance between a general question with a specific outcomes is key to engaging the crowd to share their ideas, thoughts, and comments.

2.        Execute an effective communications plan – Focus on all levels of communication and from various parties.  Most times, people want to hear from the CEO but they will listen and implement if they hear it from their boss or their bosses’ boss.   Create a way to cascade message sending from an executive leader through to  a person’s direct report.   The unfortunate/fortunate truth is that a person is more likely to read a communication that comes from a person closer in the organization hierarchy.  People respond differently so it is important to have a cross functional approach to communication to attract as much participation as possible.

3.        Create engagement – With the Spigit platform, collaboration and engagement is real time.  Building on ideas real time and getting as many people involved to share thoughts and perspectives is important to building out a robust idea.  This also shortens the time it takes to evaluate and evolve the idea once the challenge is closed.  Having ideas evolve throughout the challenge will give the reviewers more information to make a decision and thus speed up the decision making and in some cases implementation process.

4.        Evaluate ideas – Get the right people around the table. Prior to the challenge, it is important to consider who are the “right” individuals to evaluate ideas post -challenge.  The group should be small and focused, but have enough diversity in experience and background to help bring different perspectives and considerations to the table.  You will want to include individuals that may or may not have a direct relationship and responsibility with the idea post- challenge as getting different types of perspectives in the evaluation phase is critical.

5.        Recognize your innovators – Everyone wants a thank you – it is the smallest token of appreciation – and it can go a long way. Make sure to thank not only those with ideas, but those contributing their thoughts, comments, and even votes.  Everyone’s contribution, no matter how big or small, is important to recognize as it is all part of the process of innovation. Thank your and performance notes are just some of the easy and simple ways to show that participation is not only appreciated but it is valued.  I recently read a great article highlighting some great ways to recognize employees titled “Low Cost Ways To Show Employees They Are Highly Valued” by FastCompany .  I don’t know about you, but after readying that I am all for Dry Cleaning service!!

6.        Implement Quickly – TAKE THE IDEAS AND RUN!  Converting ideas to business value is the most critical and the most challenging task.  It is important to create accountability and responsibility to help move ideas along a path towards implementation and to address barriers as they arise is key to keeping the momentum going.