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Terrible Idea. NHS closes its £50m Innovation fund after only a month
If there is an organisation that should be innovating it’s the NHS! Yet, they have just closed their £50m Innovation Fund after just 1 month saying that [Innovating and improving] is “outside its core business and it can no longer afford to run it because of “unplanned expenditure”.
How can an organisation like the NHS NOT see innovating and improving as their core business?
http://www.pjonline.com/news/nhs_innovation_fund_closed_down
Brilliant Idea. Mobile Foundry
This is brilliant. It’s a mobile foundry that can be built from components readily available in the developing world which allows waste aluminum cans to be recycled into useful objects. Other than fire (which is fueled by scrap wood and paper and recycled cooking oil), the only energy requirement is for a hairdryer to boost the heat of the furnace. This innovation offers an opportunity for the street collectors to ‘create’ value by up-cycling the waste into new products rather than simply sell the collected aluminum cans to the large recycling plants for a pittance.
Really worth a watch, but the whole story is available here, http://www.humansinvent.com/#!/13754/can-city-the-mobile-foundry/
Toyota USA engages the crowd to select charities to receive a new car
Toyota USA are giving away two cars a day to deserving charities. The Crowd decide who based on facebook Likes.
The more cynical amongst us would suggest this is a clever PR stunt to engage people via social media. I’m inclined to believe that Toyota are recognizing that they need to find a way of engaging with their consumers in a more meaningful and collaborative way.
So worth a watch!
It doesn’t really relate to ideas and innovation, but it certainly is BRILLIANT.
So worth a watch, but in case you don’t have time, here are his 9 tips for a happy and successful life;
1. Don’t have a dream
2. Don’t seek happiness (focus on making someone else happy)
3. It’s all luck
4. Exercise
5. Be hard on your opinions
6. Be a teacher
7. Define yourself by what you love
8. respect people with less power than you
9. Don’t rush
Constraints can breed creativity
“When forced to work within a strict framework the imagination is taxed to its utmost – and will produce its richest ideas. Given total freedom the work is likely to sprawl.” – T.S. Eliot
Creativity and constraint are, at first glance, opposites, however there is a lot of truth in the fact that the tighter the brief – the more constrained you are, the more creative we can be.
One of the best examples of this is the photosharing service Instagram. For those that are not familiar with it, it’s one of those internet phenomenons where it’s easy to say “so what” because it’s simply a mobile app that has a bunch of filters and tools that you can apply to photos that you take with your mobile. That’s it (btw. facebook bought Instagram for a reported $500m earlier this year).
Here’s an example. On the left is a photo from my iphone, (my Son’s shirt, not mine!) and the same photo through the Instagram app.
It still isn’t the best photo in the World, but that’s not the point, the point is that although there would have been an infinite number of ways of improving the photo that I took with my iphone, I have neither the patience, talent or tools, so for me restricting the choice from infinite to 16 filters offers me the opportunity improve the photo immeasurably. (if you are interested, here’s a link to some truly amazing Instagram photos)
We can apply this to ideation. If the challenge is too broad it can actually inhibit creativity. The best challenges (a challenge being a call to action) give boundaries, purpose and a framework.
An example I often use in ideation workshops compares a challenge to;
a) create a new ready-meal (ie. the World’s your oyster) OR
b) create a new meal that that offers the consumer the convenience of a ready-meal, BUT differentiates itself from the other choices on the shelf by being fresh and devoid of preservatives and additives. All of a sudden the World of opportunities has narrowed significantly, but there is a really clear objective to work with
Measuring Innovation
You could write a book about measuring innovation (I wish I had time) because it is such a large subject. This blog doesn’t aim to be a complete guide to measuring innovation, more an opportunity to share some work I did around this subject a few weeks ago with a new client who is setting-up their key measures. I hope it is of use to others, but as always, any questions, contact me.
As is always the case with measuring activity and processes a few critical measures against broad range of activities is better than tonnes of measures.
I split them into three categories; engagement, process and outcomes
Engagement Measures (this assumes you are using a software platform like TalkFreely (www.talkfreely.com)
1. > 75% of registered users login and participate. Evidence that staff are interested in participating
2. > 50% or more of registered users voluntarily rate idea. Evidence that Staff see value in helping qualify ideas by rating
3. >20% or more of provide comments. Evidence that Staff value in helping shape ideas and sharing knowledge and insights by adding comments
4. >10% or more of registered users enter an idea. Evidence that Staff see value in offering ideas to meet challenges
5. >75% of departments have launched at least 1 challenge within the first year. Evidence that Department heads see the value in actively engaging their staff in idea sharing and innovation (this one is crucial)
Process Measures
1. >2 ideas per quarter accepted and pursued to next stage per challenge. Evidence that there are enough quality within ideas to make setting challenges worthwhile
2. No ideas in the Live and Evaluation stage remain in those status’ for more than 30 days. Evidence that the Challenge sponsors provide the resource to manage the innovation process (that ideas don’t sit in the process without being dealt with). This is another crucial one. The best way to kill ideas is to allow the staff to feel it’s a waste of time because ideas aren’t ever implemented
3. The value of costed ideas (ideas that have been evaluated and have a record of ROI) in the innovation process grows by >10% per month. Evidence that you are able to manage a growing innovation portfolio
4. The NET value of the innovation portfolio is x times the cost of the Innovation Network. Evidence that there is a growing ROI for the innovation efforts
Outcome Measures
1. Staff engagement measures (most large organisations measure engagement) has improved. Evidence that the innovation effort have improved how people feel
2. Revenue from new products increased. Evidence that ideas for new products have been implemented resulting in increased revenue
3. Operational expenditure has reduced. Evidence that ideas that can reduce costs and save money can be found
Creating the conditions to innovate
I did some work with a new client which offered some fascinating insights into what is required to get people to participate in sharing ideas.
I had the opportunity to launch the initiative at our new customer’s conference – their top 100 managers were in a luxurious hotel in Scotland for two days. Innovation was a key theme.
I did a short presentation to follow-up on the keynote from a Board Director and introduced the task which was to use the TalkFreely software to respond to some strategic challenges with ideas, comments and votes. I then showed them how to do it. Every table of 10 people had an ipad and instructions on how to use their smartphones or laptops and asked them to enter, comment and rate some of the existing ideas before the next session the following morning.
Before I reveal the results, I need to introduce a model that we use to explain what we call the Adoption Challenge.
The graph above basically says that if you offer people the option of doing their day job AND participating in idea sharing or just do their day job, most people will just do what they are paid to do and adoption is likely to be low, ie, most people will defer and do nothing (none), some people will View, a much smaller number will Rate, an even smaller number will comment and very few will offer ideas. The left hand activity (none) is easy and by comparison and the further right you go, the harder it gets. I think this model works for all corporate comms, not just ideas.
The graph below shows what happened in the first morning. Remember, they were sitting amongst their peers of the most qualified, highest paid managers in the business. The numbers are per table, so out of 10 managers, there were 15 page views so each person looked at just over one page before they gave up. There were just 11 ratings (the strategic challenges had some ideas against them already), 5 comments were put against these ideas, and 3 new ideas were offered.
The following day I had another opportunity to present, but this time we got completely different results as you can see from the graph below. There were three times more views, more than ten times more idea ratings and more than three times more comments and ideas.
What was the difference? The difference was simple, but provides a powerful lesson in what you need to do to motivate people to participate. The second time around I;
– Had the CEO introduce it, make it compelling and give it context
– Made it fun and rewarding (I had a range of prizes – mostly fun)
– Made it collaborative (I gave them an introduction to some innovation techniques and they had time to work together)
– Carefully showed people how to do it so as to remove any barriers (perceived or real)
The last nugget of insight I got from this experience which I believe is useful to share is the same graph, but just showing the activity from the person that offered the most ideas – 7 in total in one session. But notice that they didn’t rate or comment on other people’s ideas. They were very creative, but also very selfish. This is quite normal.
Brilliant Idea. Free workspace in Government buildings for startups and charities
Now this is a brilliant idea…from the UK Government!
Small businesses, start-ups, charities and social enterprises can now hire work space in government buildings for free!
They call it Space for Growth and have a website where you can view details of the workstation spaces currently available, book or simply register to be informed of future developments.
Brilliant.
More information here http://www.gov.uk/rent-government-workspace
Brilliant Idea. Re-thinking the global postcode systems
I’m writing this blog from the UK where we have a postcode (the equivalent to a zip code in the US) that comprises a two letter code for the nearest postal city then two numbers and two letters that locate my town and road. My postcode is shared by perhaps 40 homes closely packed on a suburban road. Postcodes in rural areas however can cover many miles, and big buildings can have one postcode at one end of the building and another at the other end.
Most of use are more likely to use a postcode to help us find a location with a GPS devise than we are to write a postcode on an envelope so postcode aren’t terribly useful!
What3Words.com have re-thought that and produced a global system that can describe any location to the nearest two meters with just 3 words!
Here’s where the Queen lives;
And here’s where the World famous Eden Project is using the w3w system.
Ireland, interestingly doesn’t have a postcode system, so here’s where the famous Guinness Storehouse in Dublin is located using the W3W system
I’m clueless as to how they can turn this idea into a business that truly disrupts the many systems around the World, but it really is a truly Brilliant Idea
Check it out here, http://what3words.com
Everything brilliant starts with an Idea 