2. OVERVIEW
• Who I am
• Why it isn’t SMART to innovate more.
• How to cheat at innovation.
• [Controversial slide]
• The Innovation Game (a.k.a A Parallel Universe)
• Our outcomes
3. WHO AM I?
• A technical communicator
• An information nerd
• A non-linear thinker
4. ONE, TWO, THREE – INNOVATE!
• Innovation is the Holy Grail of business.
• Most of us are already innovating as fast and as well as we can.
• “Innovate more!” is not a SMART goal.
5. MOVE THE GOAL POSTS
• Change our focus from outcome to process.
• Instead of quantitative outcomes – focus on a culture of innovative
behaviours.
• Create a multi-faceted model of innovation so we have many possible
approaches.
6. MODEL OF INNOVATION
• Our model was derived from Tom Kelley’s 10 Faces of Innovation.
• Splits innovation behaviours into 10 sets with different interests and
strengths.
• Regroups sets into Learners, Organisers, and Builders.
• This provided a number of alternate routes towards innovation.
• Creates space for everyone to contribute.
7. HOW REAL IS THE REAL WORLD?
• “Everyone wins if you share your ideas.”
• “Being an innovator will lead to promotions and adulation.”
• “We’re all in this together.”
• “You should put the good of the team and organisation over personal
interest.”
• “Success for one team member is success for all of us.”
8. THE CONTROVERSIAL SLIDE
• Every person considers personal interest first.
• If it’s bad for me, I’m not going to suggest it.
Perceived individual gain must outweigh perceived personal risk.
Every. Time.
9. PERSONAL RISK TRUMPS TEAM BENEFIT
• Individual risks include:
• Personal
• Professional
• Social
10. WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE?
• Minimise the risk as much as possible.
• Eliminate as many possible obstacles as we can.
• Make the return on all innovation-supporting-behaviours as high as we can.
• And while we’re at it, let’s do it for free!
11. OUR PARALLEL UNIVERSE
We are going to create a simple game world with the following rules:
1. Every idea for innovation is a Quest.
2. Status is gained by participating in Quests.
3. Anyone can propose a Quest.
4. Anyone can join any Quest they like, in any capacity.
5. Innovation Champions approve Quests or help players refine a Quest
proposal so it can be approved.
6. To be successful, a Quest achieves the proposer’s vision or lead to a new
Quest as a result of lessons learnt.
7. The Quest terminates with a Proclamation of Appreciation.
13. LOOKS TOO EASY TO WORK!
• It does look easy!
• Why the colours?
• Why not a digital resource?
• Is this just a sneaky way to get people to work even harder than they already
are for nothing more?
14. THINGS TO CONSIDER BEFORE YOU START
• How will you seed the Call to Arms panel?
• Who will be the gate-keepers?
• What happens to completed quests?
15. OUR OUTCOMES
• We had people volunteering out of the woodwork. The innovation game team
roughly doubled each week.
• We started acting as innovation consultants for other initiatives.
• More people started actively contributing to innovation.
16. WHAT NEXT?
• What metrics can we capture?
• How can we scale this in a global organisation?
• Can we create hook-points between the innovation game and the real world?
• What else could we build in?
• Can we tweak any variables to gain innovation momentum?
The take home messages I’d like you all to leave with is this:
If the conditions aren’t perfect to try a new initiative; pretend they are and try anyways. Fake it ‘til you make it.
This is a starting point – not a blueprint you must follow in every detail. Adapt it to your team and your priorities; make it your own. For example, you could take a stockmarket approach, or maybe your team likes to play Cards against Humanity a lot – can you adapt that?
Innovation is an iterative and self-fuelling process. Find a model that works for you and then apply it to your own innovation game. It doesn’t really matter what model you choose or create: the important thing is that it celebrates everyone’s contribution and provides some sense of progression. What you don’t want is anyone thinking “I have nothing to contribute to this.” or “I’ve already given everything I could.”
Sincerely saying thank you may seem corny, but it’s something we all could use a bit more practice at. It’s worth looking for the opportunities to acknowledge the good stuff.
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Also, if this has given you ideas on how you might foster innovation in your environment, I’d love to hear about it!