Thursday Thought Leadership Roundup: Counterintuitive Principles, Social Advocacy, and Interviews with 50+ Global TLs |
- Thursday Thought Leadership Roundup: Counterintuitive Principles, Social Advocacy, and Interviews with 50+ Global TLs
- Mind Mapping to Create a Brilliant Ebook Cover Design
- 3 Keys to Crowdsourcing That Drive Innovation in the Healthcare Industry
- INQ Magazine’s Innovation Heavy Hitters: Call for Nominations
- Mind Mapping for Productivity in Startups
- Fun Friday Links: Leveraging Intuition, Listening Better, and Transforming Your Network in 15-Minutes
- Crowdsourcing Week 2014: October 14th-16th, Copenhagen
- Thursday Thought Leadership Roundup: A Company of TLs, Ghostwriters and Spies, and Content Overload
- How Mind Mapping Allows Entrepreneurs to Realize Their True Potential
- Measuring the Practice of Collaborative Innovation: What’s Your Story?
| Posted: 03 Jul 2014 03:35 PM PDT In this week’s thought leadership roundup, we take a look at some off-the-wall principles for thought leaders, the importance of social advocacy, and a robust list of interviews with some of the world’s most renowned TLs. 5 Counterintuitive Principles for Thought LeadersIn this (very) brief video with professional speaker Douglas Kruger, you’ll hear his five not-so-common bits of advice for thought leaders on the rise. Watch it below. Watch it on YouTube or Tweet this! Social Advocacy & Politics: Thought Leadership in the Social AgeFrom Social Media Today: “Social media is where public thinking happens. So if you want to be a thought leader, you must lead on social media. Lead not only on social media, but like the tree falling in the woods: if you want to be heard you've got to fall among thinking people. If you are trying to influence the press, the press is on social media. If you are trying to lead scholarly discussions, scholars are already discussing their research on social media. If you want to lead the thinking about public policy, policymakers are all on social media, listening and thinking, even if they haven't quite grasped how to engage. The days of publishing peer reviewed articles in obscure journals read by mere dozens of people as your primary (and often only) channel of distribution are over. Those academic journal articles now come with public discourse via social media. The days of relying primarily on people reading your quote in paragraph four on the front page of the New York Times to drive public discourse are over, too. Now you can publish your fleshed out comments on a blog, Tumblr or even a Facebook wall post, then engage large public discussions via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and beyond.” Our take: All too often, fledgling thought leaders get their tactics mostly right, but fail to put together all of the necessary pieces. Creating great content doesn’t do much if you don’t share it, just like having a stellar education doesn’t guarantee you’ll be good at a job in your chosen field. Putting together all of the critical elements is the only way to build an effective strategy. Read the full article or Tweet this! 50+ Global Thought Leaders Discuss Innovation In InsightsFrom the Green Book Blog: “At IIeX in Atlanta, true stars Ben Smithee of Spych Market Analytics & Ray Poynter of Vision Critical University worked with our amazing Broadcast Partner CorporateCloud.tv and Media Sponsor Brandtrust to conduct over 50 interviews with a variety of industry thought leaders from client-side, technology providers, and suppliers on the current state and future of the industry, how to drive innovation, and the skill sets necessary for success for the researcher of the future. Each interview is about five minutes long and they are jam packed with amazing and inspiring thinking.” Our take: Set aside some time for this one — with this much perspective and insight to take in from people who truly know what they’re talking about, you’ll have a hard enough time choosing just a few interviews to share with colleagues and truly take to heart, let alone watch! The post Thursday Thought Leadership Roundup: Counterintuitive Principles, Social Advocacy, and Interviews with 50+ Global TLs appeared first on via @Mindjet's Conspire #ideasquad. |
| Mind Mapping to Create a Brilliant Ebook Cover Design Posted: 03 Jul 2014 06:05 AM PDT Many publishing experts claim that after writing excellent copy for your eBook (see my last post, Becoming a Writer, Mapper and Synthesizer), the next most important thing to do is create a good cover design. As Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords, states: “A great cover design makes a promise to the reader.” Mind mapping to design your cover can help you keep that promise. The 4 CsSteven Spatz, marketing director for BookBaby, feels that a great cover should be a billboard on the Internet Superhighway — a place where people are speeding along at “60 miles an hour” and barely give themselves time to glance at anything in particular. For my eBook How to Get Your Money Back From Big Companies, I wanted the cover to shine, so I mind mapped the four Cs of diamond quality: color, clarity, cut, and carat (weight), in order to be sure that my design had the right attributes. Here’s how. 1. Color The smart use of color attracts the attention of the viewer immediately, and since my book was about money, I chose a design that incorporated the color of US greenbacks. And as Coker suggests, I tried to envision the cover in black & white, as well as greyscale, in case it ended up appearing on a website or document that was devoid of color. 2. Clarity It is obvious that an eBook cover must be genre- or topic-specific. That's why I chose an image that made it absolutely clear what the book was about: one lone person collecting money from a large, looming entity. And with my book being sold on Amazon, iBooks, Barnes & Noble, and other online retailers, the cover graphic couldn't be too complex — it needed to look good in thumbnail size, too. 3. Cut I went with a clean design to provide a laser-like focus to the point of my book. With only the image, the title, and my name, the design was uncluttered. For me, this meant that what didn’t make the “cut” was just as important as what did. 4. Carat (Weight) I initially considered a comical, more colorful design to reflect the humor of some of the stories in the book. However, a whimsical cover was not “heavy” enough to convey the David vs. Goliath message I wanted, so I decided on the one that BookBaby designed. The fact that it was described as “Mad Men-esque” by at least one reviewer was an added advantage that made the cover more topical and current. By the CoverThe bottom line is that a great eBook cover has a lot in common with a piece of jewelry. It has to communicate a lot of information in what is, generally, a pretty limited space. It has to send a message about taste and value. And, quite frankly, It has to catch people's eyes. Using the classic diamond quality model of the four Cs provides a great framework for assessing your ebook cover — and making it shine. To see my evaluation process, download my eBook Cover Design mind map here. The post Mind Mapping to Create a Brilliant Ebook Cover Design appeared first on via @Mindjet's Conspire #ideasquad. |
| 3 Keys to Crowdsourcing That Drive Innovation in the Healthcare Industry Posted: 02 Jul 2014 12:07 PM PDT Like all industries, the healthcare sector is highly competitive; success depends not only on reducing costs and improving efficiency, but also on delivering a remarkable patient experience. Healthcare professionals are now relying increasingly on innovation to offer differentiated services. Innovation done right depends largely on mechanized crowdsourcing, or tapping into ideas from the wider professional community. That includes experienced professionals within the industry, as well as an organization’s internal “crowd” (employees). Here are 3 keys to crowdsourcing that drive innovation in the healthcare industry. 1. Make ConnectionsInnovation requires moving away from one’s comfort zone, and in healthcare, this often means seeking inspiration from other, unrelated industries. However, merely importing ideas from other sectors is nothing more than copying — not innovating. And, considering the uniqueness of the healthcare industry, plagiarized ideas are pretty likely to fail. Successful innovators cross-pollinate ideas, and find logical connections amongst them to create the larger picture. Mind maps can help the would-be innovator easily understand how concepts relate to one another. This broader, clearer visualization of challenges and ideas helps the innovator to better understand and apply new approaches in the proper context, which, much of the time, leads to breakthroughs that may not have otherwise happened. 2. Facilitate Structured StorytellingMost knowledge transfers within the healthcare industry take place through storytelling, or when experiences are shared throughout a strong, informal network. The challenge for innovators is to be able to tap into these networks and leverage the maximum number of stories from the widest audience. However, the siloed nature of the healthcare landscape, accentuated by different cultural norms in different geographies, makes this a daunting task. Novant Health, a not-for-profit integrated healthcare system, has tapped into social technology to develop a platform that allows caregivers — ranging from doctors to nurses, to lab technicians and administrators — to share their stories and, therefore, collaborate across hierarchal and political boundaries. In order to effectively crowdsource ideas from their full employee base, Novant Health uses an innovation management platform to align stakeholders with the strategic objectives of the organization and allow them to collaborate on different solutions. These healthcare professionals share experiences and disparate perspectives, which inspires everyone in the crowd to cultivate and reshape new ideas. Novant consistently uses ideas generated through crowdsourcing to drive key innovations and productive achievements, such as reducing their product development cycle down to eight weeks, saving time and money. 3. Foster a Cultural ShiftSometimes, business leaders choose to avoid leveraging their internal crowds because doing so requires much more than just asking for ideas. It requires a transparent and open company culture, where free thinking is encouraged and healthy discussions are promoted across the organization. Meanwhile, all this has to be reconciled with patent privacy laws that may mandate disclosure of certain information. A cultural shift like this also requires a strong technical framework. UnitedHealth, the largest health and well-being company in the United States, has created an open innovation program that gives employees and their ideas easy and transparent access to leaders. The system is open, allowing employees to read, comment on other posts, submit ratings, and collaborate using discussion threads. There is also a voting system in place, taking crowdsourcing to its logical conclusion. Innovation in healthcare shouldn’t only reduce cost and improve efficiency; it should also allow for the creation and development of new products and services, and improve employee and customer engagement. These 3 keys to crowdsourcing will help you generate creative, free flowing ideas for your business. The post 3 Keys to Crowdsourcing That Drive Innovation in the Healthcare Industry appeared first on via @Mindjet's Conspire #ideasquad. |
| INQ Magazine’s Innovation Heavy Hitters: Call for Nominations Posted: 01 Jul 2014 11:12 AM PDT INQ Magazine is the first publication for first-class innovators, and we're proud to release Issue #3 in July. In each issue, we choose 3-5 of the most notable up-and-coming change-makers from a variety of industries to be featured as INQ’s Innovation Heavy Hitters. Not everybody can be named a Heavy Hitter — to make the cut, they have to showcase that they're affecting meaningful, transformative change in their organizations or communities. The DetailsEach quarter we find the most influential and important innovators in our community, but we know you are aware of rising stars too. Want to nominate someone in your network for the Heavy Hitter title? Just copy the questionnaire below, fill in all of the fields, and paste it into an email to us at INQ@mindjet.com to nominate an innovative friend or colleague for the July issue of INQ. SAMPLE Nomination Questionnaire (All Fields Required)
Editor’s Note: please provide as many details as possible as to why you’re putting this person’s name in the hat — we want to make sure your nominee gets the recognition they truly deserve! Be sure to get issue #3 in July, which will focus on human ROI, and to see if your nominee made the cut! Need more inspiration? Check out Issue #1 and Issue #2, or visit mindjet.com. Click Here for Terms & Conditions. The post INQ Magazine’s Innovation Heavy Hitters: Call for Nominations appeared first on via @Mindjet's Conspire #ideasquad. |
| Mind Mapping for Productivity in Startups Posted: 30 Jun 2014 12:16 PM PDT Fostering innovation and increasing productivity are priorities in every organization, regardless of whether you’re a Fortune 500 company or a brand new startup. One way to achieve both of these goals is through mind mapping. While mind mapping can be quite useful for large businesses, there are some very specific organizational benefits of using mind maps in startups. Let’s take a look! Conquer Your FearsWhen you’re running a startup, it’s only natural to second-guess your ideas and have doubts about the direction your company is going. Startup fears can be productivity killers for every entrepreneur out there. Paired with the number of hats entrepreneurs wear in their fledgling organizations, these factors, if not focused efficiently, could be debilitating to your business. Mind mapping can help clarify thought processes and bring much-needed perspective to the table. It allows people to outline fears and business concerns, from sourcing and manufacturing challenges to the many hurdles often faced by marketing and sales. More importantly, it helps visualize how to overcome those fears, and try to anticipate possible problems that could arise. When you use a collaborative mind mapping tool, the whole team — or company, as is the case with many small startups — can contribute and foresee what problems may arise, and offer solutions for how best to overcome them. Participants can make specific correlations between one part of the business, and offer up creative solutions for various problems in their respective departments. Laying everything out visually helps break down issues into more manageable pieces, and making them far less intimidating. A simple exercise like this can do wonders for confidence levels in your startup, along with ensuring that everyone is on the same page. Ideas and BrainstormingIn a startup, there’s bound to be a lot of energy and buzz around the product or service being developed. Startups often have brainstorming sessions more frequently than large businesses, in order to talk about new ways to market the product, tailor it to different audiences, and assess how early growth is going. In this flurry of activity, you neither want to lose good ideas nor do you want to keep driving the ones that aren’t viable. Startup leaders need to let their teams have “brain dump” sessions, wherein all ideas are brought forth and views expressed. Our advice? Start the brainstorming mind map by creating floating topics, then draw connections and branch out into other, fleshed out ideas. Mind mapping software allows you to organize topics together under a specific branch, as well as create filters and filter rules to block out different topics and ideas, allowing you to view only what you need to. Mapping Out PrioritiesMind mapping software is wonderful for enabling people to better map out priorities. Think of it as using a virtual whiteboard, exempt from the hassle of erasing and redrawing; you can drag, drop, and organize topics with ease, and the entire team can make changes together. The visual component of mind maps makes it easy to evaluate ideas, and lets you refine criteria so that you can appropriately weigh each idea. Plus, since it’s a visual interface, you can compare ideas side-by-side and easily select the ones you’d like to pursue. It’s a simple, intuitive matter to organize ideas and information in a single view, in order to see connections and draw conclusions quickly. Essentially, there’s less time wasted on decision making. And, finally, you can map out the resources you have and integrate schedules so you can plan with the company’s best interests in mind. Another challenge in startups is managing finances. How much capital do you need to keep the company going and how much should you put back in? By taking a step back and creating a mind map of all your expenditures, sales and resources, you can organize your expenses, identify profits, see where your capital is going, and assess how much is flowing in. You can then decide how much you would like to invest back into the company, and identify any necessary measures that need to be taken in order to remain stable and growing. If you’re an entrepreneur who has launched a startup, or are looking to launch a business, give mind mapping a shot. And, if you’re interested in giving Mindjet’s mind mapping software a go, request a demo for more information. The post Mind Mapping for Productivity in Startups appeared first on via @Mindjet's Conspire #ideasquad. |
| Posted: 27 Jun 2014 02:49 PM PDT Welcome to Conspire's Fun Friday Links, a weekly collection of interesting discoveries from around the Web. Most of the time, the goal is to get you thinking differently about innovation, collaboration, business culture, and life in general. Other times, we may toss an infographic or fun video your way. Submissions are welcome, and you can send them to conspire@mindjet.com for consideration. Four Strategies for Listening to Your GutMost people consider intuition to be something very much like instinct — they’re often used to express the same idea. But if you get into the nitty-gritty of the definitions, instinct is something done without much, if any, cognition involved, whereas intuition is a reaction based on some type of knowledge gained through experience. Though writer Daniel Epstein uses the terms interchangeably in his blog, he dives into the various strategic ways with which you can take charge of those gut feelings and inklings, whatever you like to call them. From Unreasonable.Is: “Need to make an extremely important decision that could change the course of your life for the months or years to come? An easy way to help make that decision is to simply flip a coin. Sound haphazard? Well, I'm serious. Teju Ravilochan, the fearless leader of the Unreasonable Institute, is the one who first led me to this decision making strategy. If you are torn between a binary decision (i.e. trying to decide whether or not to do something), flip a coin and assign tails to "yes" and heads to "no." Then, when the coin lands on either side, listen to the immediate gut reaction you feel to the results of the coin toss. If you feel a sense of sadness or disappointment, then you know that you need to do the opposite of what the coin told you. Conversely, if you feel a sense of relief with the results of the coin toss, then you should go with what the coin demands. In short, that immediate internal reaction is your faster intelligence telling you which way to go.” Read the full article or Tweet this! 10 Ways to Listen Better and Be "Fully Present"In a world bombarded with endless mental stimulation, it can be difficult to organize our own thoughts, let alone pay attention to anyone else’s. But because of that, it’s even more imperative that we find ways of existing in the moment — before all of our moments get swept away by an obligation to tell the internet how much we’re doing while we’re doing it. From Executive Coaching Concepts: “We live in a world where this simple notion of being fully present is often overwhelmed by the cacophony of "noise" and the invited avalanche of bright shiny objects that pop up on our smartphones, computers, tablets and on the TVs that are on everywhere, all the time. Some of this "noise" can be useful and productive when we can sort out the important from the trivial, but that can be hard to do. Lost in this tsunami of stimulation is the ability or skill of being at peace long enough to have a meaningful conversation and demonstrate our interest in another person's worldview or needs.” Read the full article or Tweet this! Open Relationship Building: The 15-Minute Habit That Transforms Your NetworkThough widespread, having to ‘network’ isn’t everyone’s favorite way to get their foot in the door at a company, or to break into new industries. Still, it’s a highly effective way of doing so, and being good at it can be the difference between flourishing and floundering. Enter ‘open relationship building’, the future of networking. From Forbes: “Relationship building in the 21st century will be drastically different than it was in the 20th. In this century, it will be more important than ever to have a large, diverse, and deep network. Open relationship building is a unique approach to building this type of network in your downtime…Open relationship building is a systematic approach to finding efficient ways to say 'yes' to connecting with as many others who resonate with you and want to connect as possible. It also means being extremely discerning on who you go on to build a deeper relationship with. The three qualities that make it unique are: - Putting the onus on the sender to filter themselves - Using your downtime to save time - Shortening the length of your calls and meetings.” Read the full article or Tweet this! The post Fun Friday Links: Leveraging Intuition, Listening Better, and Transforming Your Network in 15-Minutes appeared first on via @Mindjet's Conspire #ideasquad. |
| Crowdsourcing Week 2014: October 14th-16th, Copenhagen Posted: 27 Jun 2014 12:08 PM PDT With crowdsourcing, crowdfunding, and crowd science gaining traction globally, conventional methods of ideating and product development — as well as the entire future of innovation itself — are ripe for welcoming collaboration. No matter the industry, sewing collaborative practices into the fabric of an organization opens up innumerable possibilities for driving change. Crowdsourcing Week 2014This year’s Crowdsourcing Week conference, happening October 14th-16th in Copenhagen, will bring together innovation masterminds, speakers, enthusiasts, and thought leaders for three days of debate, discussion, and education about the expanding face of collaborative innovation. From CSW2014: “The future is human-centric, all about participation and the ability to co-create via an increasingly connected world. This new way of doing things – crowdsourcing, crowdfunding, co-creation, collaboration, and open innovation – is challenging business models and workings of organizations across the board, offering an immense opportunity to rethink and reinvent conventional processes. Crowdsourcing Week is paving this transition toward a more open and collaborative economy.” The below infographic provides a bit of insight into last year’s findings. To learn more, catch up with @CrowdWeek on Twitter, or visit the event site to get info and register.  The post Crowdsourcing Week 2014: October 14th-16th, Copenhagen appeared first on via @Mindjet's Conspire #ideasquad. |
| Thursday Thought Leadership Roundup: A Company of TLs, Ghostwriters and Spies, and Content Overload Posted: 26 Jun 2014 02:00 PM PDT In this week’s thought leadership roundup, we explore how to tap into every employee’s potential expertise, overcoming the dangers of content overload, and how ghostwriters and spies play into content marketing’s biggest issues. How to Create a Company of Thought LeadersFrom Forbes: “Outline your strategy by asking key members of your team some high-level questions. What do we want to accomplish here (attract talent, convert leads, boost loyalty, etc.)? What differentiates our company? Who is our target audience? What do we want to communicate to them? These answers will guide you in creating a content plan. Once you have that in place, you're ready for execution… Create an editorial calendar with due dates. Make sure your employees understand that they're not submitting the great American novel every time they create content. In fact, they shouldn't even worry about spelling, grammar, or sentence structure. All you need from them are thoughts, ideas, and insight. Because it's substance you're after, they should feel free to write in a stream-of-consciousness style; your writers and editors will turn it into something engaging and readable.” Our take: The strategy is in the structure — as a rule, natural thought leaders will emerge without prodding, but you should never depend on it, or assume that there aren’t at least a few diamonds in the rough who are waiting for motivation, encouragement, or a platform to share their ideas. Read the full article or Tweet this! How Thought Leadership Beats Content OverloadFrom Marketeer: “Unless you're selling toilet paper, your target market is not everyone. And even if you are selling toilet paper, according to my best friend — a salesperson with a huge consumer goods company — only 99% of American households currently purchase it. (Gross, I know.) The point is, you have a specific audience, so creating the next viral cat video isn't that helpful unless your audience really loves cats and it makes sense for your brand. Instead of creating content that will resonate with the masses, create content that resonates with the 100 or 1,000 people who really matter to your business.” Our take: The bane of the content marketer’s existence is dealing with a fractured audience, or one that has an exceptionally broad focus. The trick is, like the author points out, to employ thought leadership and develop assets that are truly valuable to specific segments of that audience. Great leaders give their marketers the proper tools and enough information to do this. Read the full article or Tweet this! Ghostwriters, Spies, and Content Marketing's Thought Leadership ProblemFrom Contently: “At the end of movies about the CIA, there's often some takeaway about the thankless life of an intelligence officer. I was watching Argo this weekend, and sure enough, after all the diplomats were saved from Iran, Tony Mendez—the hero played by Ben Affleck—is notified he received an award from the President. Only he never actually gets the award, because, as his boss tells him in a parking lot, nobody can know about his mission. Then it hit me: That's the life of a content marketing ghostwriter. Sure, you need to strip away all the danger and heroism and patriotism, but the function of doing a job without any recognition is identical.” Our take: Since we regularly talk about the importance of employee engagement and incentives, this article really hit home. Thought leadership isn’t really thought leadership if the content being promoted is being crafted by someone other than the thought leader themselves, making the overuse of ghostwriters a dangerous game. Read the full article or Tweet this! The post Thursday Thought Leadership Roundup: A Company of TLs, Ghostwriters and Spies, and Content Overload appeared first on via @Mindjet's Conspire #ideasquad. |
| How Mind Mapping Allows Entrepreneurs to Realize Their True Potential Posted: 26 Jun 2014 09:00 AM PDT Throughout the workday, most people have a list of things they need to accomplish in order to stay on track with their workload and head towards achievable goals. While you might have written down a to-do list and keep it up-to-date, you probably experience lingering thoughts about specific project, or focus on ideas that haven’t come to fruition or that aren’t even on your task list yet. Successful entrepreneurs, who are constantly thinking about a variety of ideas, are certainly not immune to these challenges. They can hinder productivity in the midst of multitasking and the constant pressure to demonstrate progress. So, how can you keep the entrepreneurial juices flowing without putting other priorities on the back burner? Mind Mapping = ProductivityMind mapping can be a great way to either combat or foster fledgling ideas that haven’t yet come to pass. Instead of just focusing on a long list of to-dos, they can help entrepreneurs streamline their thoughts and organize information to boost productivity and efficiency. Mind mapping can also help identify which ideas are worth pursuing through the process of elimination, based on the logical progression of the original thought. Accounting for ComplexityHow does mind mapping account for the complexity and importance of the different tasks a typical entrepreneur faces everyday? Mind mapping takes simple to-do lists and adds many dimensions to them. As a structured visualization of the logical path of each task or idea, the outcome of each task and, therefore, the identified priorities, it allows you to see the forest and each individual tree. While multitasking may be inevitable, mind maps allow people to focus their energy on the specific tasks at hand, with a clearly laid out road map on what this task will achieve, as well as how and when other relevant tasks have to be executed. The Benefits of Using Mind Maps for Multitasking RolesConsider the case of a tech entrepreneur, who has to wear several hats at once. The compelling pressure to advance dozens of leads through the marketing lifecycle, meet the deadlines of half a dozen critical ongoing projects, attend conferences on the latest industry trends, conduct trainings with employees, and consistently produce a healthy revenue stream can overwhelm even the most focused and energetic of leaders. Mind maps allow the entrepreneur to separate the various projects, which are all competing for his or her attention, into specific tasks or chunks of tasks — and allocate time to each. They can also provide insight to the following:
Creating a mind map is much easier than many people think. The basic requirement is really just to empty the mind and capture everything in a map. At the basic level, the mind map lists the outcome of each project, linking to logical tasks that are required to achieve the desired outcome. From an operations standpoint, timelines make mind maps highly functional. A good mind mapping software automates most of this process, making the entire approach fast and effortless. These tools help users collate and organize the hundreds of pieces of information related to these specific tasks — including reports, documents, and links — in a single place. For instance, the tech entrepreneur can add documentation to the list that is to be submitted two weeks later, allocate time to edit (which is in sync with the progress of the actual project) and finally, retrieve the documentation to make updates or edits. If you’re an entrepreneur looking to boost your productivity and manage multitasking more effectively, request a demo of our Mindjet MindManager mind mapping software today. The post How Mind Mapping Allows Entrepreneurs to Realize Their True Potential appeared first on via @Mindjet's Conspire #ideasquad. |
| Measuring the Practice of Collaborative Innovation: What’s Your Story? Posted: 25 Jun 2014 09:00 AM PDT Last week, a Mindjet client and SpigitEngage user sought my view on measurement. He pursues his practice in a global, multi-brand enterprise, and wanted to know how he might measure his practice of collaborative innovation. My perspective? We tell a story by how and what we measure, and we can weave that tale in many different ways. We start with a premise of how the practice might help an organization realize its potential for leadership. We try taking certain actions, pulling certain levers with certain people to see what happens. We face challenges. Some we anticipate and others surprise us. We find our way forward and resolve the plot. A Blueprint for SuccessThe client and I explored how he might tell his story by applying the plot inherent in the blueprint for collaborative innovation (figure 1). (You can also download a PDF of the blueprint here.)  The blueprint starts with intent: What critical question — were we to pursue it together — might lead to authentic breakthroughs? This is where story begins. Then we move to space: who do we invite along with us on this journey? Then we move to flow: what happens when and with whom? Then we discover the resolution: What happens to the ideas and their contributors at the end of our tale? Do the good guys win? Lastly, by way of epilogue, we have reflections. Did we advance the culture of innovation? Who showed leadership vision and courage at certain critical junctures? Did the story matter in a larger sense? Each of these phases can have a set of factors and indicators attached to them: meta-commentary or a way to keep track of the plot. (1) Success factors need context to make sense. Start with the story line for your practice. Your Call to ActionWhat do you think? How do you tell the story of your practice? How do you set factors and indicators to bring the plot to life? Let us know in the comments section. The post Measuring the Practice of Collaborative Innovation: What's Your Story? appeared first on via @Mindjet's Conspire #ideasquad. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from via @Mindjet's Conspire #ideasquad To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
0 comments:
Post a Comment