In terms of sourcing concepts from throughout the group, there’s a variety of well-proven methods starting from particular event-based ideation periods and broader innovation contests, challenges and pitch days, to ongoing enterprise innovation processes, incubators and labs the place concepts may be submitted and evaluated at any time.
One of the best method is usually a mixture of those methods so you’ve got each ongoing and event-based mechanisms to supply concepts for the innovation pipeline. Up to now, I’ve written often about event-based ideation periods, or innovation workshops, which may be utilized to supply concepts from a extremely focused group of material specialists.
On this article, we’ll take a look at a broader mechanism to run an annual innovation contest throughout your group and share greatest practices to make it a world-class occasion:
As a chief info officer or chief innovation officer, your contest already has C-Suite sponsorship by means of your involvement. Even higher is to contain your president and CEO. Their seen enthusiasm and assist for the competition and their encouragement for members is among the greatest contributors to success.
Align the competition to your core values
Together with CEO sponsorship, one other means so as to add gravitas to your contest is to align along with your core values. This helps make clear the aim of the competition and illustrate the way it contributes to these values. For instance, “ardour for folks” aligns with and fosters a tradition of innovation and collaboration. A core worth of “be the change you search” aligns to the tempo of innovation and workers appearing as catalysts for innovation throughout their divisions. A core worth of “decide to greatness” aligns to the impression of innovation and searching for game-changing alternatives for development and effectivity.
Talk the method and timeline
Choose a confirmed methodology (third-party or develop your individual) after which talk the method and timeline forward of and all through the competition. This may increasingly embrace posts in your company intranet, posters in native workplaces, and contest launch webinars open to all so you may tackle questions and share key focus areas, examples of the varieties of concepts of curiosity, contest timeline, guidelines and prizes.
Make advertising and marketing a strategic accomplice
With the above communications exercise, advertising and marketing needs to be your strategic accomplice all through to develop world-class supplies to assist the competition. They’ll even have a pulse on appropriate contest themes drawing from company or popular culture and may coordinate logistics for pitch day shows.
Contain your innovation evangelists as first-round judges
To get to a High 10 checklist of finalists for pitch day, draw in your innovation evangelists throughout your divisions to carry out a primary spherical of voting. This has the twin good thing about offering you with trusted and educated sources, in addition to additional constructing their involvement and relationship with the innovation program.
Coach your finalists forward of pitch day
When you’re decided the High 10 checklist of finalists for pitch day, you should definitely coach them forward of the primary occasion. Whether or not pitch day is in-person, digital or hybrid, they’ll must know the format for his or her shows, the exact timing by way of their pitch and questions from the judges, and their transition time to be introduced into the session. You should definitely embrace biographies of whom they’ll current to in addition to the judging standards for his or her concepts.
Contain your senior management workforce for pitch day
Since concepts might come from all components of the enterprise, a robust method is to incorporate your senior management workforce, comprised of heads of divisions and heads of inside departments like gross sales, advertising and marketing, HR, and finance. This has the additional benefit of serving to join these leaders with rising stars from throughout the group.
Run a folks’s alternative award to contain the entire group
A Individuals’s Selection Award permits workers to vote for their very own favorites from among the many contest finalists, and helps to make all concepts seen to the whole firm. For instance, video recordings of every finalist’s pitch may be shared on the corporate intranet as a part of the Individuals’s Selection Awards to allow them to be considered previous to voting. This additional socializes concepts throughout the group and includes everybody within the contest.
Have fun all members
It’s necessary to have fun not simply the general winner of the competition, however the High 10, the Honorable Mentions, in addition to winners in different classes akin to a class for “present improvements,” which have already been applied. You should definitely thank all concerned together with the senior management workforce, the first-round judges, the advertising and marketing workforce, and all contestants.
Discover easy methods to implement all concepts
Simply as govt sponsorship is among the greatest contributors to success early on, its counterpart on the finish of the competition and thereafter is to discover easy methods to implement all concepts. Execution is important and it’s necessary to comply with via and discover with every contestant easy methods to progress their concepts the place it is smart. Some is probably not possible, but it surely’s necessary to discover.
After all, there are various methods to prepare and execute any innovation contest, so the method above is only one instance. Crucial facet to make your contest a world-class occasion is involvement and making it a workforce sport that belongs to the whole group so it turns into an intrinsic a part of your tradition and core values – even a shining instance everybody factors to.
