Collaborative Idea Management – what are the success factors?
My Applied Innovation Management article deals with the challenge to engage the entire organization and beyond to contribute to innovation in an organization. At Ericsson, we have been using a tool for collaborative idea management for some time now and it is still growing, spreading to all parts of the organization. A clear message on innovation from top-management and the fact that we have integrated the tool into our collaboration initiative (which means that we are building on an existing IT infrastructure, in our case SharePoint, with established support etc. rather that putting in place a separate IT system) have definitely contributed to the success and widespread use.
I would like to initiate a discussion on the success factors for making collaborative idea management work. What is your opinion and/or experience?
Tags: collaboration, ideation, innovation
Views: 133
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Steen Koldsø on -
Some of the success factors is:
A clear goal and prober business reasons for using innovation management.
The ease of use of the IM system.
Access anytime, anywhere.
The sponsorship from top management on running idea campaigns in the start.
Focus on real challenges that need your participation and creativity now.
Feedback to people participating.
Relevance and easy Involvement of people.
Start up small and then expand.
Active facilitators.
Buy a professional system where the experience and best practice with IM is included.
Tailor it to your needs.
Agile process.
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Permalink Reply by Bengt-Arne Vedin on -
In addition to Steen Koldsø's pertinent points:
- Animation, i e, keeping the discussion live (well... = active facilitators)
- Topicality, i e, linking to events, circumstances, experiences in the NOW of the discussion
- Demo of informality and mundanity of access/participation
- Feedback, response to issues raised, if necessary through calling on authorities/competencies inside/outside
- Feedback to all participants as to the practical outcome of the process
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Permalink Reply by Sam Kondo Steffensen on -
Besides the many sensible points already listed by the two previous contributors, I would - based on our experiences - like to add the following:
- proper and purposeful categorization
- transparent exposure of top contributors (value crators)
- dynamic activity based profiling
I do, however, have a hard time understanding what IT integration should do of decisive good in the fostering of
the much needed new innovative organizational mindset, especially if it involves Sharepoint.
SaaS appears to be the Zeitgeist.
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Permalink Reply by Patrik Hidefjäll on -
Thank you Magnus for initating this very interesting post,
I would like to ask how success may be defined and measured? And also what could make a company want to start with a Collaborative Idea Management system in the first round?
Patrik Hidefjäll
Sam Kondo Steffensen said:Besides the many sensible points already listed by the two previous contributors, I would - based on our experiences - like to add the following:
- proper and purposeful categorization
- transparent exposure of top contributors (value crators)
- dynamic activity based profiling
I do, however, have a hard time understanding what IT integration should do of decisive good in the fostering of
the much needed new innovative organizational mindset, especially if it involves Sharepoint.
SaaS appears to be the Zeitgeist.
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Permalink Reply by David Detlefsen on -
Here is one of the simple tactical things:
If you are using a 3rd party system that may not be built onto something already in place like SharePoint, it is HIGHLY recommended that you get Sing-Sign-On working.
In our own internal research, one of the BIGGEST hurdles to getting the rank-and-file to not only try this once, but for the 2nd or 3rd time is "I don't know my username and password".
It's amazing but something that small can derail MANY new users from exploring such a system. So you either make it a mandate from management to use it X number of times a week and track that, or make it as easy as possible for people to stumble in and discover its value.
It seems so silly, but do anything you can to prevent the requirement of a user to have yet another username/password to keep track of.
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Permalink Reply by Steen Koldsø on
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Good point David,
Single sign on is a must have when you buy an IM system! Together with easy password recovery, that's just is in place when we deal with big company customers.
David Detlefsen said:Here is one of the simple tactical things:
If you are using a 3rd party system that may not be built onto something already in place like SharePoint, it is HIGHLY recommended that you get Sing-Sign-On working.
In our own internal research, one of the BIGGEST hurdles to getting the rank-and-file to not only try this once, but for the 2nd or 3rd time is "I don't know my username and password".
It's amazing but something that small can derail MANY new users from exploring such a system. So you either make it a mandate from management to use it X number of times a week and track that, or make it as easy as possible for people to stumble in and discover its value.
It seems so silly, but do anything you can to prevent the requirement of a user to have yet another username/password to keep track of.
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Permalink Reply by Steen Koldsø on
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I agree with Sam of: " what IT integration should do of decisive good in the fostering of
the much needed new innovative organizational mindset, especially if it involves Sharepoint".
You risk end up investing a lot of money and time in building a poor system, that do not have the right functionality, it not tested enough. Your IT people are not idea & innovation management experts.
It can easily end up as an idea cemetery that no one want to use after a while, then it get even more difficult to involve people again.
Most of all you will miss the experience, best practice and the well thought features of a professional system.
Sam Kondo Steffensen said:Besides the many sensible points already listed by the two previous contributors, I would - based on our experiences - like to add the following:
- proper and purposeful categorization
- transparent exposure of top contributors (value crators)
- dynamic activity based profiling
I do, however, have a hard time understanding what IT integration should do of decisive good in the fostering of
the much needed new innovative organizational mindset, especially if it involves Sharepoint.
SaaS appears to be the Zeitgeist.
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Permalink Reply by Sam Kondo Steffensen on
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Well put Steen.
Steen Koldsø said:I agree with Sam of: " what IT integration should do of decisive good in the fostering of
the much needed new innovative organizational mindset, especially if it involves Sharepoint".
You risk end up investing a lot of money and time in building a poor system, that do not have the right functionality, it not tested enough. Your IT people are not idea & innovation management experts.
It can easily end up as an idea cemetery that no one want to use after a while, then it get even more difficult to involve people again.
Most of all you will miss the experience, best practice and the well thought features of a professional system.
Sam Kondo Steffensen said:Besides the many sensible points already listed by the two previous contributors, I would - based on our experiences - like to add the following:
- proper and purposeful categorization
- transparent exposure of top contributors (value crators)
- dynamic activity based profiling
I do, however, have a hard time understanding what IT integration should do of decisive good in the fostering of
the much needed new innovative organizational mindset, especially if it involves Sharepoint.
SaaS appears to be the Zeitgeist.
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Permalink Reply by Sam Kondo Steffensen on
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Fully agree David /Steen. Should be elementary.
Steen Koldsø said:Good point David,
Single sign on is a must have when you buy an IM system! Together with easy password recovery, that's just is in place when we deal with big company customers.
David Detlefsen said:Here is one of the simple tactical things:
If you are using a 3rd party system that may not be built onto something already in place like SharePoint, it is HIGHLY recommended that you get Sing-Sign-On working.
In our own internal research, one of the BIGGEST hurdles to getting the rank-and-file to not only try this once, but for the 2nd or 3rd time is "I don't know my username and password".
It's amazing but something that small can derail MANY new users from exploring such a system. So you either make it a mandate from management to use it X number of times a week and track that, or make it as easy as possible for people to stumble in and discover its value.
It seems so silly, but do anything you can to prevent the requirement of a user to have yet another username/password to keep track of.
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Permalink Reply by Christer Edman on -
Involve all employees by asking what they are passionate about and motivates them. Make sure you have a diversified work force involved and encourage an open atmosphere without judgment. To many companies and managers don't appreciate provocative thinking and cannot recognize opportunities behind the surface and nurture their creative and innovative resources.
Creativity and innovation is about imagination and very often is tacit knowledge and spirituality also involved especially for divergent innovation. I have discussed with several employees on different companies who don't feel they are listened and cared about because they have difficult to express their ideas, or work in an area that shouldn't bother about creating ideas and work with innovation.
Make it possible to participate in one or several of the innovation steps depending on the employees interest, Clarifying, Ideation, Developing and/or Implementing (FourSight Breakthrough)
Thanks to all for a very interesting discussion!
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Permalink Reply by Klas Bertilsson on -
A success factor for me is a decentrilized process that is not dependent on a central org but on the interest of the people that own the "pain" (Issue to be Solved).
Thanks for all the inputs !
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Permalink Reply by Dirk Hamelinck on -
Lots of things have already been said, but in most cases "crating and sharing a common vision" (why + how + goals) , "driving enthousiasm to contribute" (involve whole organization + reward creativity) ... and last but not least making sure the guiding processes are in place (coach - manage - decide) so that don't loose your audience on the longer run (because they don't see the result they expected over time) makes the big difference.
Of course you need to make sure all the operational stuff is in place and is professional ... but don't forget this is for a large portion about people sharing their brains , ideas en experience in a multidisciplinary context. IM helps to organize the sharing and tactically break down some of the (often unvisible) intra en inter company walls that hamper creativity to boil-up and to be used effectively. But the key success factor is a about creating a company and management culture to grow an harvest the creativity fruits, and effectively turn them into added value for your business. The problem has stayed the same over time, but the methods to get there have changed a lot !
anybody wants to share concrete findings on what worked - and what didn't in your own context, and what might have been the main causes for the success or failure of your own projects ?
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