Socializing The Search For Collaborative Innovations

The current processes and progress of innovation are hindered from a Lack of Perspectives (Stove Piping) that restricts the free and open exchange of thoughts and information (Ideation), inadequate tracking & follow through (Drive), lack of proper training & solution development tools (Support), and ultimately stagnation (Non-Implementation). The task of innovation is most often handed to Subject Matter Experts who are then asked to innovate on processes & technologies with which they have been working for many years. The LEAN Process Improvement industry has proven that this is an ineffective approach to innovation. If you want to improve a process, you bring in people that are unfamiliar with that process to evaluate it. The reasoning is that the individuals that run the process have learned biases and cannot always see the opportunities for improvement (innovations). By bringing in people that are unfamiliar with the process you eliminate those learned biases. Also, since the people are unfamiliar with the process, they will strive to understand the process. It is quite often during that verbal exchange when the opportunities for improvement (innovations) are identified. To be truly successful, an “Innovation Ecosystem” will need to challenge the current status quo.

After the successful launch and operation (400+ collaborations established in seven months) of an interactive “Presentation & Ideation Forum” for innovation within the Federal government, it was realized that this concept offered real value and needed to be expanded to support commercial, academic, not-for-profit, and philanthropic industries/groups looking at innovation. It also needed to somehow track and drive the forward progress of those innovations. The goal was to build an online Innovation Ecosystem Platform that is open to all sciences, industries, technologies, services, and capabilities. An Ecosystem that addressed the current challenges that hinder development & progress of innovative solutions, provided the tools needed to support & drive their success, and be open to collaborating with the overall community to achieve success. We chose to model this platform after social media and web services platforms, with a foundation built on the principles of LEAN Process Improvement, and make it available to any industry/sector with a desire to innovate.

Through implementation of a series of open format interactive “Ideation Forums”, challenges and existing/new/novel technologies/capabilities/services/applications are ideated upon. All associated solutions, and the individuals responsible for their identification/development, are identified and collaborative teams established. These teams are then transitioned to an online “Collaboration Platform” for further development, tracking, and support through access to a Private Collaboration & Document Repository, Innovation & Collaboration Education & Support Tools, a “Solution Development Incubator”, and an “Innovation & Ideation Messaging System”. The result of which is the Innovation Ecosystem for “Driving Innovation from Ideation to Implementation”.