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Innovation

The Key to Good Ideation

Ideation

Table of Contents

Like bread making, ideation needs just the right conditions. Here are three key ingredients for creating the perfect space to generate ideas.

Gone are the days of the suggestion boxes that tend to act as metaphorical coffins for employee ideas. There is now a trend of organizations wanting to spend time listening to ideas and making them pay through investment in ideation software and processes. There is a real ambition not to let ideas die as they may have done previously.ย 

This sort of investment is a step in the right direction, but I have seen organizations struggle with the success of their ideation process for various reasons. There seems to be an expectation that investing in an ideation platform is the answer to all issues, but there are still challenges relating to poor choice of platform, challenging cultures or inadequate processes. Without these challenges being addressed, it feels as though organizations have simply invested in a digital place for employee ideas to gather dust.ย ย 

The biggest factor people tend to forget aboutย when investing in employee ideas is the quality of the ideas themselves. In my opinion, any investment and strategicย prioritizationย should beย centeredย around theย quality of ideasย the strategy will be producing.ย 

Ideation is an incredibly fragile process that draws on many sensitive human traits in order to get it absolutely right. In this blog, I will focus on the ideation process with the main focus on generating good ideas.ย 

Good Ideation Needs a Dedicated Space

Before you evenย consider theย quality of ideas being sharedย as part of your ideation process, you first need toย look atย the environmentย in which you are asking people to ideate.ย ย 

To use an analogy, letโ€™s think of the ideation process as baking bread โ€“ you can have all of the correct ingredients, mixed in the correct order and in the correct quantities, but without the right conditions to prove the bread, you wonโ€™t have a mixture that will rise and baking the bread will be pointless.ย 

The same goes for ideation. You can have the best communications and endless funding, but without a good structure, an easy-to-use platform, or the right culture, your ideation process will fail, and you wonโ€™t have the ability to receive good ideas from your organization.ย ย 

There are three key aspects that I would like to share with you, whichย I believe are the key ingredients in creatingย a place to successfully ideate:ย 

  • Provide an easy place to share ideasย 
  • Provide a structure thatย enables good ideas to be sharedย 
  • Set clear expectations and ground rules.ย 

Letโ€™s look at these in more detail to explainย theย thinkingย behind the statements.ย 

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Providing an Easy Place to Share Ideas

Here at edison365,ย weย have vast experience with customers that are unsure as to whetherย they need a platform to share ideas. I completely understand that this capital expenditure may seem pointlessย and riskyย when so muchย is already invested into IT tools and processes.ย 

Speaking fromย thisย experience,ย anย ideationย platformย mustย be an investment that is madeย early in the ideation journey to ensure you have the infrastructure to support the process from the very beginning.ย ย 

Any platform selected needs to be easy and fit for purpose.ย When selecting the platform, always have the outputs in mindย โ€“ do you just wantย the quantum ofย ideas or is your focus more on delivering ideas and reporting?ย Regardless of the outputs that the organization wants, the platformย mustย make it easy for people to share ideasย as any barriers to sharing will turn people offย quicklyย and kill your ideation process straight away.ย 

plant-growing-ground

Providing a Structure that Promotes Good Ideation

Once you have the place to share ideas, you need a structure that makes submitting ideas easy. More importantly, you need a structure that prevents the submission of bad ideas, which makes the whole exercise pointless. ย 

This structureย can come in manyย different shapes and sizes,ย but I would like to focus on the actual format you are askingย ideatorsย to submit their ideas in.ย This,ย more than anย ideation process,ย will have the most direct impact on the quality of ideas submitted.ย 

For any idea form to be of good quality, youย will need to have a number ofย key fields thatย are requiredย to be filled inย โ€“ย this ensures you have maximum control over the information being provided throughout the ideation process.ย Some of the key fields of information that need to be provided are as follows:ย 

  • Idea title โ€“ย give theย ideatorย the opportunity toย make a statement and provide their idea with a shop window that will allow them to sell their idea to those required to vote andย review.ย Encourage the use of catchy or โ€˜stickyโ€™ titles that draw people inย and bring some interest.ย ย 
  • Detailedย description โ€“ you need to give the ideator the opportunity to go into detail about what their idea is trying to solve. However, I would recommend having some control over the length โ€“ you want to discourage too much writing. Remember, you want the ideation process to be a success, so you donโ€™t want to be turning people off with reams and reams of text.ย 
  • Interesting and clear categories โ€“ providing idea categories is the quickest and easiest way to enable your ideators to add detail to their idea submission, along with providing key insights to the organization. Categories enable you to add granularity to an idea while getting away from wordy descriptions. Adding categories also allows you to easily filter different ideas and report against them โ€“ always bear in mind the outputs and the way you want to manage the ideation process when you are introducing the likes of categories and themes.ย 
  • Key metricsย โ€“ as an organizationย you need to understandย what you need to know aboutย ideas that are submitted.ย Costย of implementation? Time taken to implement? Strategic impact?ย You need to be clearย aboutย this information and you also need toย highlightย itsย importance to yourย ideators. Theyย need to knowย theย key metrics you need to be answeredย andย the detail you require.ย This also provokesย another layer of thinking from theย ideatorย to improve the quality of the idea submittedย โ€“ the more you challenge theย ideatorโ€™sย thinking, the more detailed and considered the ideas submitted will be.ย 

This isnโ€™t an exhaustive list by any means,ย butย what it shows is that providing a structureย that suits both the organization and those submitting ideas willย enhance the quality of ideas being submitted and increase the success rate of ideas as a result.ย If youย want toย discover more thinking aroundย ideationย structure,ย my previous blogย discussesย key ingredients that lead to a successful challenge.ย 

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Setting Some Ground Rules

Similar to providing structure to your ideation process and forms, setting ground rules and some clear expectations is a great way of letting your ideators know what you expect from their ideas while being open and honest as an organization as to what you will be doing with their ideas once submitted.ย 

Setting ground rules isnโ€™t all aboutย theย demands of the organization andย anyย expectations,ย although this is important.ย This should be used as an opportunity forย leadersย and those responsible for leading any ideation processย toย show some vulnerability and sayย that โ€˜we donโ€™t have all of the answersโ€™ and โ€˜we need your help solving business-wide challengesโ€™. This needs to be clear in the messages you are putting out there.ย It has been seen many timesย that when those in positions of power show some vulnerability and admit they donโ€™t have all of the answers,ย it actually improves employee engagement and leads to more successful projects within an organization.ย 

From my experience, there are three simple waysย to setย ground rules and expectations that promote the engagement of your employees and the sharing of good quality ideas:ย 

  • Good ideas onlyย โ€“ Make it clear from the outset that the quality of ideas matters. Be clear that the idea forms need filling in with the required detail and quality for ideas to be considered. Show the organization that you are taking the ideation process seriously and that โ€˜any ideaโ€™ wonโ€™t be accepted but ideas โ€˜submitted with careโ€™ absolutely will. It is easy to do this with clear user guides, good communications and a robust and transparent reviewing process. Find out what makes a good idea.
  • Be clear about what happens to ideas โ€“ Let employees know where their ideas go and be transparent about the process all ideas will be going through. Show off your โ€˜funnelsโ€™, processes and decision trees. Be clear about idea status, even if that status isnโ€™t a successful one. People want clarity, regardless of success, so showing how the ideas are moving through the process will be an ideal way of showing the whole organization that work is being done in the background to make a success of the ideation process.ย 
  • Why should employees bother? โ€“ย You need to let employees know it is worth theirย timeย to get involved in your ideation project. We mentioned thatย simply being a โ€˜visible leaderโ€™ will encourage people to getย involved butย settingย up a reward and recognition schemeย will also help this engagement and involvement.ย The rewards donโ€™t have to be expensive and in fact, I have found cheap but personal gesturesย work best. For example, sendingย outย handwrittenย thank you cardsย was an incredible successย in a project I was involved in.ย A large part of the rewards and recognition is that second partย โ€“ recognition. For this,ย communications are absolutely key. You need to be transparent about the best ideasย and what those that submit great ideas receive.ย You need to communicate how much you appreciate employees taking the time to submit their ideas.ย You also need to communicate the fact you even appreciate those ideas that werenโ€™t successful.ย ย 

To summarizeย the above: creating a successful ideation processย is all aboutย havingย clarity in your communications. Communicate your expectations. Communicate your challenges. Communicate the successes. This openness will be so powerful and onlyย result inย better ideas being submitted.ย 

Final Thoughts on Good Ideation

Although this was mainly aimed at those setting up and launching an ideation process,ย there are takeaways for anyone that is involved in business leadership, project managementย and change management.ย 

  • You need to keep things simple and accessible so that all employees can be involved.ย ย 
  • You need toย create a safe space that allows everyoneโ€™s contribution to be on a level playing field,ย ensuring no information is missed.ย ย 
  • You need to put a structure around this accessibility to ensureย there is order around the direction of travel.ย ย 

Above all, communicating intentions, processes, successes, and failures will break down all walls and any perceived bureaucracy associated with the ideation project, and the levels of engagement will reflect this openness and willingness to communicate.ย 

Innovation Management Platform

You can find out more about how using innovation management softwareย can support your ideation efforts on our edison365ideas page. You can also find industry-specific information on idea software for healthcare and innovation platforms for construction.

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Author details

Customer Success Manager

Serial learner, Rob, has an endless supply of book and podcast suggestions, and is always on the hunt for fresh, new advice. The one time you wonโ€™t find him brushing up on his business skills is when heโ€™s busy cheering on his favorite soccer team, Manchester United! With a background delivering projects and innovation in the construction industry, heโ€™s become an expert on people-first innovation and business transformation. Rob is passionate about delivering successful innovation and transformation projects and is focused on understanding the impact this can have on organizations, industries, and society.

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