Building The Foundation Of A Winning Ideation Event — Advanced Basics Part 1
There is a definition for innovation I love that goes like this:
“Innovation is the core organizational competency for dealing with the everyday, aggressive pace of change” — Aaron Proietti, Today’s Innovator.
The genius in Proietti’s definition is that it applies to incremental, architectural, and discontinuous innovation, all of which are critical for growth and even survival. If we take this definition and mix in a little ‘people are a company’s greatest asset,’ and a bit of ‘ideas can come from anywhere,’ it yields a provocative how might we…
How might we utilize our greatest asset (our people) to deal with the every day, aggressive pace of change?
There are many, many ways to approach this. One decentralized approach that any organization can implement quickly is to hold an ideation event. Some people might call them hackathons or pitch events, but I find those terms have strong connotations that can cause confusion. In short, we are talking about creating a formal channel where people can bring their ideas forward.
You might be thinking…why? If it is a good idea, it will find a way. Theoretically, yes, practically no. Organizations tend to have a certain momentum, and innovation, by its nature, disrupts that momentum. This triggers corporate antibodies that suppress ideas and block change agents that threaten the way things are done. Or, more accurately, ‘the way things have always been done around here.’
Antibodies sound like malicious protectors of the status quo, but in reality, they are often prudent and logically sound business decisions. “It is not in the budget” “Maybe we can look at it next quarter. There is a lot on the plate right now” “That’s a great idea! You should work on it when you have time” “Interesting, but it sounds risky. Has anyone done it before?”. These are not inherently right or wrong/good or bad statements, but like a fever, they are signs that antibodies are doing their job.
Enter ideation events.
Ideation events help overcome the initial set of antibodies by:
- Giving people permission to take intellectual risks.
- Elevating ideas past gatekeepers and providing visibility to a larger audience who might be keener to run with them (remember, most gatekeepers are just people doing their jobs and doing them well)
- Providing a structure where new ideas can be surfaced and considered without significant investment or commitment.
Number one is the most important. Number two is self-explanatory. Number three, I want to extrapolate on.
At first glance, organizing an ideation event seems like a fair amount of work. And it is. However, consider how an idea might come forward through organic pathways. Someone brings their idea to a manager, who will advise the ideator to come back with a case or proposal. If the manager (gatekeeper) thinks it might be worth further consideration (and conditions are right), they will help move it forward. This will trigger a series of meetings and/or emails to gain buy-in. If nothing more pressing supersedes it, the idea will eventually break out of its vertical to compete for resources with other projects already in flight. At each stage, more work is put into refining the case, and the sunk cost fallacy intensifies. All things considered, a formal ideation event is equally as efficient and provides the opportunity for far more return on the time and energy invested (see: There Is More To Ideation Events Than Ideas).
Quick aside. Ideation events are not a silver bullet and are in no way a replacement for a well-designed innovation program. However, even the best innovation programs can cause a bottleneck. Ideation events can help to clear that quickly while ensuring people feel heard. It is also not uncommon for people to feel intimidated by formal processes or not understand how to initiate them. Stand-alone events remove those barriers.
Ideation events do not have to be challenging to put on. In fact, I will be publishing a simple playbook for creating ideation events shortly. That said, simple does not mean simplistic. If you want to get the most out of your innovation or ideation event you will have to do some design work upfront. You will have to make real choices that will significantly impact the event and ultimate outcome. There may even be choices you did not know you had to make that will not manifest themselves until it is too late. I wrote this article to help you identify and understand those choices and the ripple effects they cause.
There are six areas to navigate up front if you want to create a truly great event.
- Getting Leadership to Champion the Event
- Deciding on the type of event
- Determining the scale of the event
- Setting Expectations
- Incentivization
- Planning for What Comes Next
For readability and focus, I have broken these up into two articles. Shortly we will explore areas 1–3. These items will form the foundation for your event. Poorly designed foundation, poor event; I am sure you all know the foundation metaphor. These six areas are interdependent. The choices you make in one area will impact the others.
What I will share with you is what has worked best in my experience. It is up to you to interpret it in the context of your organization. Please know that you don’t have to spend an immense amount of time and energy thinking through this all at once. As you work through your event design, you will get a feel for how the pieces fit together. Cohesion > Perfection.
Get Leadership To Champion the Event
Without leadership support, consider your event just for fun. As you progress through this article, the reasons for this will become more apparent, so I will not belabor the point here. Leadership support is the most important thing to have. Full stop.
Wait, I don’t think I am being as clear as I should be. I am afraid that what you may have read is that you need leadership’s nod of approval, ie. “Yes, you can do that. Make sure you report back with the results”. What I mean is you need leadership to be standing on the nose of the ship, waving the flag as the SS. Innovation Event rolls into the dock. The more leaders are engaged and supportive, the more credibility the event will have, and the more likely people are to participate and bring their best.
The level of leadership support required will depend on the type of event and the scale of the event. By level of leadership support, I mean CEO, Director, Regional Director, etc. More on this in the next sections on event type and scale.
When seeking leadership support, you will be asked: “Why should the organization invest time, energy, and budget into this?” Unfortunately, I can’t answer that question for you. Not because I do not have a good answer, but because for your response to be compelling, you will need to tailor it to align with the organization’s needs and culture. There is an immense amount of fantastic material on the benefits of ideation events. An hour of exploration will give you plenty to work with. You may also want to read another article I created that explores the hidden value inherent in innovation events that organizations often fail to capitalize on. You can find it here.
Before we leave this section I want to repeat it one last time. For the event to have as much impact, credibility, and value as possible you need the right level of leadership to be a champion of the event. This includes full alignment on the design of the event, the purpose, the desired outcomes, incentivization, and what comes after the event.
Decide On The Type Of Event.
There is a spectrum of event types. On one end are events where the organization outlines a specific problem for participants to solve. Typically, in this type of event, participants compete to figure out the best way to get from PROBLEM A to DESIRED STATE B. Traditional hackathons generally follow this format. At the other end of the spectrum is a fully open event where participants can bring any idea they dream up forward. Nestled between these extremes is theme based event. A themed event places parameters around the nature of ideas that people are allowed to bring forward.
Examples
Specific Problem — We want to rearrange the layout of our store (or websitse) to be more customer friendly, how might we do it?
Theme — ‘Improving customer experience’ participants can bring forward any ideas they like as long as they are linked to improving the customer experience.
Open — Have an idea big or small, practical or bold, bring it forward we want to hear it!
How you create your event can fall anywhere along this spectrum. I could write an entire article on creating event themes alone, and maybe I will, but I highly encourage you to take some time to think about this. Why? Because the type of event you choose to go with will dictate the value that can be derived from the event.
Suppose your goal is to come out of the event with practical and implementable solutions where a tangible impact can be seen and measured relatively quickly. In that case, providing a specific problem for participants to solve will give you the best odds of success. However, if the desired outcome is to inspire the organization with big, bold ideas, then participants need the latitude an open or themed event provides them. Remember, if you want bold ideas, it is unlikely that they will also create an immediate return. In fact, they may not be implementable at all. A real choice needs to be made here, and stakeholders must be cognizant of how the choice will impact the event’s design and purpose.
This sounds simple, but it is not. I don’t say that to be provocative. It is not uncommon for different stakeholders to desire different returns. You may hit a snag here, one that might not manifest until the pitches are adjudicated. Big ideas are sexy, and it is not uncommon for people to gravitate to them as the event’s purpose. But when the time comes to pick a winner, practicality takes over, and the top consideration becomes the ability for the idea to produce a prompt and tangible return. You need to reconcile this ahead of time.
You can have an event that invites both practical and theoretical ideas. To accomplish this you will need to set up categories that allow for ideas to be adjudicated using different parameters.
However you approach it, you need to be as transparent as possible with participants about what the organization is looking to get out of the event. If what you ask for and what you reward are inconsistent, it will cause frustration, and the event will lose credibility.
Decide On The Scale Of The Event
How far-reaching will the event be? Is it a company-wide event? Divisional? Area-specific? Location-specific?… you can build it any way you want as long as it is meaningful. We will come back to meaningful shortly, but first, some words on scale.
The Obvious
If you want to have an organization-wide event, you will need support from the CEO and executive team. If it is a divisional event, you need support from the division leader(s). If it is a technology event, then support of the technology team and so on.
The Less Obvious
The magnitude of change you allow participants to bring forward should not be larger than the leaders involved can support. Clear as mud? Let’s explore with an extreme example. Imagine you are running a divisional ideation event where the director of the division is the highest level of support for the event. If someone brings forward an idea that challenges the company’s vision, how far could the director realistically take that? My guess, not very.
It is not about the idea gaining traction. It is about the promise you are making to the participants that their idea will be heard and have the potential to be considered in a meaningful way. If you do not have this the event will quickly lose credibility. The scale, scope, and leadership support are the components that work harmoniously to achieve this.
This is really the crux of it when it comes to laying the foundation. You are thinking through the event’s design so that it is supported, consistent, and meaningful to both the organization and participants. I do not address it in this series, but I would go as far as to have the parameters on which you will judge the ideas complete and agreed upon early in the design process. This will help make it clear to all involved what is important.
In part 2, I will explore setting expectations, incentivization, and planning for what happens after the event. These are critical in building participant confidence and longevity in the event. Stay tuned.
**If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask them in the comments section. They are beneficial to me in identifying blind spots and in improving my work. I will do my best to reply promptly.**
