Contemplating engagement

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So, for everyone who may or may not be aware – I work for a company that concentrates on Crowd-sourcing Innovative Ideas as a software offering.  Innovation is what we sell and we achieve results by providing tools and knowledge that enable that.

So, what’s the short story on this?  At the end of the day, how do you make it happen?

I’m going to start by telling a story of a kid working professionally in his early 20s.  That kid was me.  I’ve always been the kind of person who spilled ideas out of his pockets wherever he went.  I do so freely and without expectation that I’m going to be compensated for all the ideas, and I don’t worry to much about it.  I have more than I’m ever going to be able to work on, so I don’t see a reason to be a hoarder about this.

All that being said, when I was about 22 or so, I worked for a company that was on the crest of a new wave – the commercial internet.  We worked long shifts (I was a system operator) and we tried very hard to make sure that everyone stayed up and running all the time.  We performed special requests for customers, we got to walk around in shorts if we liked and though this was just outside Washington DC, we were by all the definitions that matter – a startup.  We didn’t have the panache and the savoir faire of another startup that became much more famous in Washington – AOL, but we did get to be a part of the creation of something new – the commercial version of the internet and the beginning of the world wide web.  These two things are the same now for most people…but then – things were different.

Some other things were different then as well.  Although even then I wanted to invent, create, innovate, be a part of R&D, imagine what might come next, etc etc etc – I didn’t have the keys to that kingdom.  I’ve learned over the years what those keys are…or what they were anyway before what I’m doing now:

  1. Credibility – you have to have recognition as someone who’s ideas matter
  2. Position – you have to be in a position to promote your ideas to those who can invest
  3. Vision – you have to be able to articulate how the idea you have would be realized
  4. Passion – ok, I always had that
  5. Relentlessness – took a while for me to get this, but it’s what keeps you going when people don’t always get it
  6. Mental Flexibility – you have to be able to explain it in what ever terms and in what ever model will make it happen
  7. Risk acceptance – you have to be able to take a leap of faith
  8. Ability to Fail Fast – you have to recognize when it’s time to quite, when it’s time to shelve it, and sometimes, when it’s time to bull ahead
  9. Social Savvy – you have to be able to get a crowd behind you – even then – the crowd mattered
  10. Influence – you have to be able to convince your backers, investors, sponsors, or whatever – that this is achievable
  11. Execution Premium – if you’re going to do it and you have everything else going for you – then you better have the commitment to execution and realization – for certain you will crash and burn all of your other 10 capabilities if you fail to execute – and you’ll have to build them all back up again; execution doesn’t mean that your idea is going to be a winner, but it does mean that you produce something and that your idea becomes reality
  12. Track record of success – this is what let’s you turn around and do it bigger and better each succeeding time

So, what’s different now?  Well, today, you can put together a team with the support of the crowd, to bring together all the people, having all the traits listed above, and you can do it faster and better – than any one person could do in the past.  Welcome to the Network Effect, welcome to the Human Network – and welcome to Crowdsourcing Innovation.

So why does all this matter – because when I was that 20 something – I gave a pile of ideas to organization after organization – and became disengaged each time because all my ideas were being ignored.

What about now – ok, so my circumstances have changed – and so maybe my ideas are no longer ignored, but a few weeks ago – I got to hear a story about how the software from the company I work for resulted in a new college grad’s idea being selected as the best of the best out of a conference of 900 people.  This new college grad had a voice, because crowdsourced innovation now exists.

But – that’s just the story about why this matters – so what about making it happen?

And this is the key point here – at the end of the day, though my company sells the software, it’s the network effect – and moreover the Human Network that makes this possible.  The Human Element is what we engage with.  We don’t do software for software’s sake, we do software for the opportunity to make it easier for people to interact with, engage with, support, enable and empower one another.  You do that by doing the things that humans have always done – you communicate with, you celebrate with, you recognize, you reward, you do it together – and – you don’t turn this whole thing into a cold metal box.

The metal box might make all those things you are doing a little easier, but this isn’t about automation – it’s about human engagement.  I’ll talk about this more in future posts, but remember – it’s about the Human Network.  That’s how you make crowdsourced innovation successful.

Hopefully, my story about myself and about a recent new college grad this summer can help everyone see why this is so important as well.

Cheers,

John-Michael – August 1, 2012

What is an ecosystem…

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When you think about creating the right conditions for an innovation community, capability or culture to grow inside a non-profit, a non-governmental organization, a governmental organization, or a corporation the first thing that I think is important is to understand the ecosystem.

Well, ok, what is an ecosystem in the first place – I’m going to reference Wikipedia again as I will often do in my posts, because when you’re talking about crowdsourcing, it never hurts to reference one of the most famous examples.  So, again, what is an ecosystem?  Well, let’s start with a picture.

According to Wikipedia, an ecosystem is:

a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving, physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight.[1]

I think this is a useful metaphor to use in describing a human organization as well.  A human organization is an environment consisting of all the employees in a particular logical grouping, as well as all the physical assets, financial assets, idea assets, process assets, and technology assets of the environment with which the employees interact, such as dollars, computers, telephones, collaboration communities, org charts, management and leadership.

Similarly, ideas exist in their own particular ecosystem and have their own organic life as well.  An idea ecosystem is very similar to a human organization ecosystem with the exception that the ideas are the organism and the humans are actually one of the physical assets that the ideas interact with.  This may seem like a leap, but, ideas have a life of their own, are capable of growth, impact and influence their environment and the resources within it and can evolve.  Ideas are organisms in their own way.

Why democratize…

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Democracy – rule by the people… But where did it begin…  And did the roots of innovation start there?  How did we get to where we are now?

So, I was doing some reading – and I found out that contrary to my original assumptions, and although Athens is traditionally considered the source of all things Democracy (certainly the word if nothing else) – it turns out that democracy seems to predate the Greeks.  I know…shocking…hard to believe…inconceivable according to Vizzini.  But – yet – true.  It appears that the history of democracy can be found further back than we all like to think in western culture – off in eastern culture.

The reason that the Athenians have gotten all the credit for this is that the creation of Athenian democracy can be attributed to someone, that the precepts are documented and that they closely connect to our current definitions.  Specifically:

Solon divided the Athenians, into four property classes, with different rights and duties for each. As the Rhetra did in the Lycurgian Sparta, Solon formalized the composition and functions of the governmental bodies. Now, all citizens were entitled to attend the Ecclesia (Assembly) and vote. Ecclesia became, in principle, the sovereign body, entitled to pass laws and decrees, elect officials, and hear appeals from the most important decisions of the courts.[34] All but those in the poorest group might serve, a year at a time, on a new Boule of 400, which was to prepare business for Ecclesia. The higher governmental posts, archons (magistrates), were reserved for citizens of the top two income groups. The retired archons were becoming members of Areopagus (Council of the Hill of Ares), and like Gerousia in Sparta, it was able to check improper actions of the newly powerful Ecclesia. Solon created a mixed timocratic and democratic system of institutions.[36]

As you may guess from all the hyperlinks – this was taken from Wikipedia.  So what does this have to do with innovation?  Well, for the purpose of political systems, wealth creation, ownership, legal titles, etc – a lot.  It turns out, once you establish a democratic rule, much of the rest of this becomes possible on a broad scale.  Democracy and Innovation are tightly twined.  Democracy is by no means the only source of Innovation, but it is a source that has broad potential for all aspects of the community.  It is not limited to innovation for military might, nor wealth creation, democracy based innovation can aspire to solve problems in any field imaginable.

What is most interesting about this though, is that the democracies of humanity’s ancient past have more closely resembled the “open innovation” communities that we are seeing rise up today than initially could have been presumed.  How so?  Well consider this:

“Open innovation is a paradigm that assumes that firms can and should use external ideas as well as internal ideas, and internal and external paths to market, as the firms look to advance their technology”[2]. The boundaries between a firm and its environment have become more permeable; innovations can easily transfer inward and outward. The central idea behind open innovation is that in a world of widely distributed knowledge, companies cannot afford to rely entirely on their own research, but should instead buy or license processes or inventions (i.e. patents) from other companies. In addition, internal inventions not being used in a firm’s business should be taken outside the company (e.g. through licensing, joint ventures or spin-offs)[3].

And then there is Social Innovation:

Social innovation refers to new strategies, concepts, ideas and organizations that meet social needs of all kinds – from working conditions and education to community development and health – and that extend and strengthen civil society.

The term has overlapping meanings. It can be used to refer to social processes of innovation, such as open source methods and techniques. Alternatively it refers to innovations which have a social purpose – like microcredit or distance learning. The concept can also be related to social entrepreneurship (entrepreneurship is not necessarily innovative, but it can be a means of innovation) and it also overlaps with innovation in public policy and governance. Social innovation can take place within government, within the for-profit sector, or within the nonprofit sector (also known as the third sector), or in the space between them. Research has focused on the types of platforms needed to facilitate such cross-sector collaborative social innovation.[1] Social innovation is gaining visibility within academia.[2]

Additional terms that sometimes fall into this area include Crowdsourced innovation, innovation communities and others.  In each case, the concept involves using social means, communication, community development and other techniques to promote the rise of ideas from within or without an organization drawn from a community of persons.  The evolution of laws took place by crowdsourcing, the definition of markets took place through crowdsourcing, the evolution of farming and nearly all of humanities activities driving up to the creation of our modern cities occurred through crowdsourcing – sometimes these crowds were rewarded, sometimes not.

We can rely on power, wealth, military might and national interest to drive innovation certainly, but to really unleash a torrent of innovation, don’t discount democracy.  Democracy unleashes the creative spark in humanity in a way that very little else can.

Thanks to Wikipedia for all the quotes – I couldn’t imagine writing this without you.

Starting over…

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Blogs…  Blogs have always been something I stopped and started rather than something that I kept up with all the time.  I’ve thought about this a lot, and I still don’t know if I could put a finger on why it is that I post intermittently.  I think the biggest problem is that there are so many other things that I’d rather do than sit in front of a computer during any of my free time, and blogging, for better or worse, is principally a free time activity.

So, what makes this time different?  I think it’s really about the end in mind.  The purpose of this blog is to write a book.  There, I said it, it’s out there, and I’m committing to you, the reader, that this is a book in the making.  I have some ideas as to how this book is supposed to go, but I’m going to be looking for feedback and direction from the community of innovators out there to comment or add insight and to help this become something valuable.

What else is different besides the stated goal?  Well, the job – I think this is a critical factor.  Although I’ve spent a lifetime committed to innovation, invention and figuring out how to bring new ideas and dreams to life – I’ve joined a business who’s goals line up directly with my own – Spigit is a company focused on providing a software technology to enable the unleashing of torrents of innovation inside organizations.  How?  By opening up the innovation potential of the entire crowd inside and outside any organization.

All this being said, the words I write here are my own – although I intend to write on behalf of Spigit as well – this blog and the thoughts I share here reflect my own evolving thinking.  Much of the time I’ll be writing about the new world of open/crowd or I think better stated community based innovation – but this blog just might contain amazing inspiring stories or products that I stumble across out there in the world.

Here’s to new beginnings – and if you see me out there – don’t hesitate to stop by and say hi!  I’m always happy to talk about this stuff and I can’t wait for the opportunity for us all to meet and speak together about it.