by Michael Soerensen

Use the power of the Social Media “teens” in your organization!

Everybody is struggling with innovation collaboration – especially how to make employees, customers, etc. chip in… One way of bypassing this for good, is to identify the savvy social media experts within your company, and equip them with tools for innovation and ideation. And you don’t need to search for long – just call your Human Resource (HR) department and get a list of employees under 30 years of age, and you will have instant access to specialists brought up on facebook, messenger, linkedin, myspace, etc.!

This group knows what works – and what doesn’t – when it comes to sharing and communicating knowledge – which is the core element of innovation. Think about this – If just 10% of employees’ traffic/time spent on social media within the company perimeter was spent on collaborating instead, you could increase your innovation effort drastically!

You need ideation, collaboration and innovation, so why not just “copy” methods and tools that work? …and let the ambassadors be the young guns that use social media like never before. A quick self-assessment on this is to simply analyze your own ‘consumption’ of Linkedin, Facebook, myspace, etc. on a daily basis, and ask yourself “Why do I use these tools and what am I gaining from them?”

Innovation and ideation tools are out there using exactly the same techniques as the big social media networks – and here is my take on the key elements that you should look for:

• simple web-based intuitive interface
• accessible from ‘anywhere’
• simple input methods – don’t get too advanced in asking for knowledge!
• personalization opportunities

When you have found your tool, and recruited your ambassadors internally – copy this externally! Seek amongst your customers within the same group, and invite them to collaborate.

If I were responsible for innovation in a company, I wouldn’t wait one second in starting this process, as the benefits are so obvious and so easily accessible! And the nice part is that you don’t need to call for external social media expertise – you have experts sitting right next to you!

Stefan Lindegaard quoted me on this subject as well in this article, with some interesting perspectives -Can Social Media Tools Hinder Innovation?

by Michael Soerensen

To define “ownership” or management of innovation within a company, it’s vital to start out by looking at the organisational side of it. You need a strong innovation organisation in order to spur and cultivate innovation throughout the company – and you need to move away from the ivory tower strategy, where the few decides for the many.

You are not “born” into the innovation organisation on your job title – but on your capabilities to be an ambassador enabled to optimize the innovative thinking of your colleagues! So, how do we identify these ambassadors? The first move is to grant ownership of innovation to everyone! Management needs to stress that ongoing innovation is vital, and that everybody needs to participate – and the incentives must be created, to continuously bring collective innovative thinking into the loop.

When done, the ambassadors are easy to find, and you can start building your innovation organisation. Now, you can start reaping the benefits in continuously asking for ideas and suggestions, having a trim innovation organisation helping you out high and low! You can now get sophisticated, and run campaigns asking specifically on subjects like; CSR, Sustainability, new products, work process improvements, cost reductions, etc. You can even go as far as creating an innovation benchmark, from which you can extract valuable information about your company’s innovation capabilities!

Funny thing is, that when you get a job, in the hiring session you will always here the phrase; “…and, of course, we expect that you will participate in developing our company…” – Has anyone ever measured this?

You can check out all of the ‘Innovation Perspectives‘ articles from the different contributing authors on “Where should innovation reside?” by clicking the link in this sentence.

by Michael Soerensen

Challenge your specialists, to help you develop an innovative culture!

After you have checkmarked all the essentials of getting your company to focus on innovation – tools, workshops, gurus, funding, and management buy in – you are now faced with the biggest challenge:

How to develop and maintain it!?

First, try to SWOT what you need to succeed – HR competencies, communication, internal marketing, ROI methods, nifty design, IT…

Why start doing this halfhearted, when you already know that you don’t possess these skills?

Many innovative efforts – even with the largest funding and management buy in – have failed because these key elements were not done properly. Instead of failing, make sure that you get carte blanche to tap into your company’s specialists:

HR - They are brilliant at helping you tackle the different sub-cultures of the company – and knowing how to get them involved!

Sales & Marketing - They can help you design a marketing plan and a pitch – and your webmaster probably knows some mind-blowing methods of spreading the word on your intranet!

Finance - The numbers people will love the challenge of setting up that awesome spreadsheet on the innovation ROI!

Production & Engineering – These hands-on groups will be pleased to evaluate – and test – the groundbreaking new product ideas!

IT – Don’t forget them – they are vital!

All of above are savvy specialists, who know their way around their subjects, and if you involve their key competencies in the challenge, you will be on the road to success – harnessing their vast knowledge and dedication.

And a great side effect is that you will get ambassadors and lobbyists working for your project, in every vital and strategic corner of your company!

After you do the above, don’t forget to play your part:

• Publish all results… good or bad!
• Support, support… and support everybody involved!
• Make sure to announce any progress – personally – and throughout the company!
• Embrace suggestions to your project with enthusiasm!
• In general, spread kudos and karma to everyone helping you out!

And finally – keep challenging your enrolled experts and specialists, with important new tasks!

How do we secure not to create gaps in our innovation efforts ?

Most companies will claim that they run continuous innovation as they are constantly seeking to improve, enhance and strengthen their key competencies and products…However, they mostly do not draw a line between continuous innovation and the opposite; discontinuous innovation, but rather see both as an outcome of keeping up an innovative culture amongst employees, and maintaining an R&D function.
They more or less see the continuous part as something they expect from employees – and the discontinuous as a kind of “stroke of luck” factor.
Indeed many are focussing on discontinuous innovation, seeking the “game changing” product or service that will create or change an industry, and in the quest for that, the continuous part is being left a side without funds, tools and encouragement – and vice versa!
So whether you are focussing on continuous or discontinuous innovation, you will likely – and unwillingly – create a dangerous gap between the two! How is this gap identified ?

- insufficient funding for both
- lack of commitment hence no clear strategies
- “tug of war” effect between continuos and discontinuous “believers”
- “blurred” measurements of effects
- “biased” driven innovation

Some has come to the conclusion to put all the eggs in one basket – only focussing on one method, thereby leaving out the benefits/risks of the other. This could sound like a sensible decision, but mostly its due to the fact that they have given up in trying to close the gap. Some might agree and some might disagree of my description of this gap, however it is my strong believe that everyone working with innovation has experienced this!
Whats the cure !?
Firstly you need to realize the presence of the gap…Then you should decide whether to close it! (If things are running smoothly – why close it?) Now that you`ve realized the gap, try to understand why it´s there….and even more important; what are the impacts ?
The far worst impact you might discover is that the gap actually is a “no mans land”, where results from both the continuous innovation efforts and the ditto discontinuous, is residing, and not getting any further ! Simply because the brilliant new product idea from R&D has`nt made grounds with sales and marketing, and the cost saving suggestions from HR did`nt make impact as they weren’t picked up by management….If above are your findings, you will actually find yourself in quite a good position;

1. You discovered the gap!
2. You are now capable of redesigning your approach!
3. You can prove the urgency in doing it!

Whether the gap has evolved from lack of funding, poor collaboration, blurred strategies, bad management ect. – you will be able to solidly determine where your efforts have failed – and why!

Actually, a frequent “gap check” is recommended as any innovation strategy do develop gaps sooner or later!

continuous innovation – n : modest, gradational, ongoing upgrades or enhancements of existing technologies or products; continuous innovation generally does not fundamentally change the dynamics of an industry, nor does it typically require end users to change behavior. The opposite of continuous innovation is discontinuous innovation, also known as disruptive innovation.