Leveraging the Power of the

Crowd for Quick Wins

Diana ZybutzNovember 2019

Why is innovation important?

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Why do large companies find it especially difficult to innovate?

“I have an idea for another department, but they may take it negatively as the perception is I’m

interfering and trying to tell them how to run their business”

Image Source: Kirsner, S. (2018). The Biggest Obstacles to Innovation in Large Companies. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2018/07/the-biggest-obstacles-to-innovation-in-large-companies

“The budget was allocated last year, so we have to wait at least a year to ask for new budget and even then, it probably won’t make it through our

capital process due to XYZ”

“Who should I talk to about my idea”“I have limited time and resources:

operations is priority over innovation”

Manager

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What is the focus of today’s presentation?

Effort

Imp

act

Innovation strategy and roadmap to obtain, evaluate, and implement quick win ideas from large groups of people (or crowds).

Crowds can be internal to the organization, which is our focus for today, or external.

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Who is the crowd? A very large group of people

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Internal R&D / developers

Helpdesk

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User experience team

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Leadership teamThis Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

Retail employees Marketing / Sales

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Others?

5

How can we get ideas from a large group? Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing: collecting and managing ideas through a central collection point, like an idea management system or innovation portal

Benefit: closer to the customer by leveraging direct customer knowledge and pain points from all employees

Caution: Crowdsourcing is one of a set of tactics. Do not use in isolation

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Why do we need a quick wins program? Shouldn’t good ideas get implemented organically?

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Imagine running disaster recovery without a plan

Imagine running projects without project management

What types of results would you get?

Why is quick wins innovation management any different?

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What will you get out of today’s presentation?

Method to assess quick wins organizational readiness

Strategies to create a culture of innovation

Governance

Best practices to drive awareness and build engagement

Quick Wins Crowdsourcing

Roadmap

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Quick Wins Organizational Readiness Assessment

Awareness and engagementIf you were to ask a random employee, they would:11. know how to submit their inter-

departmental quick win idea12. feel confident that they will receive

a response after submitting an idea13. understand the value of innovation

to the company14. believe that innovation is

recognized and rewarded15. understand that the company does

not punish those that submit ideas, even if it is a bad idea

Leadership and culture1. Leadership has a strong vision and

recognizes that innovation is necessary to achieve it

2. Team members feel comfortable building on each others ideas by giving open and honest feedback

3. Learning through experimentation is encouraged

4. Leadership and team members believe that status quo is never good enough

5. Everyone in the organization, regardless of their position, is encouraged to be innovative

Governance6. Ideas are easily submitted to a

central location. All submitters receive a timely response & reason why idea was / wasn’t accepted

7. Budget exists and is adequate8. A small group of people are

dedicated to governing innovation9. The group is able to progress good

ideas through any part of the company with full senior leadership support

10. The best innovative ideas, not [insert someone’s name here] favorite, are progressed into implementation in a timely manner

As you read each statement, think about quick wins in your organization and score it. Add the points for a total out of 30• 0 points for every statement you don’t agree with• 1 point for sometimes you agree with the statement• 2 points for you agree with the statement most of the time or always

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Organizational Readiness Assessment - Results

Results

0 – 10: laggard

10 – 20: untapped potential

20 – 25: slight enhancements could significantly improve results

25 – 30: leader

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Why are these three pillars important?

Leadership and Culture leads to employee behaviour that

supports innovation, including submitting ideas to

enhance the company’s vision

Governance results in all ideas being captured and good ideas being selected

and implemented in a timely manner

When awareness and engagement are high,

employees willingly submit ideas to a central collection point and understand how their actions contribute to

the organization's goals

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What happens if you don’t have all three?

Leadership and culture

Governance Awareness and engagement

Examples

• While ideas may be submitted, they don’t support company vision• Status quo is acceptable, so why rock the boat by submitting ideas?• Great ideas aren’t created, as employees are not keen to build on or

discuss each other’s ideas

• Ideas fall through the cracks• Poor ideas may move forward to implementation or no ideas move

forward at all

• Employees, who have ideas, do not know where to submit them and therefore the ideas don’t reach the proper point for evaluation

• Employees don’t believe their ideas will be evaluated properly, or don’t believe they will be recognized, so they don’t bother

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What are the key components of a Quick Wins program that utilizes crowdsourcing?

Leadership and culture Governance Awareness and engagement

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Leadership and Culture

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What does innovative leadership look like?

Continual dissatisfaction with the status quo

• Belief that innovation is one of the top drivers of growth

Business strategy is tied to innovation1

• Generalisations, like “we need to innovate to create value or grow” are not helpful

• Be specific: how will it create value for customers (i.e. save time or $, easier) and why is this important?

Champion of a culture of innovation

• Gives executive sponsorship support, including resources, funding, promotion, model behaviour, etc.

Source 1: Pisano, G. (2015). You Need and Innovation Strategy. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2015/06/you-need-an-innovation-strategy 15© Diana Zybutz 2019

What does an innovative culture look like?

Failure is acceptable.

Incompetence is not

Experimentation to learn is

encouraged

Without fear of repercussion,

employees can be open &

honest

Collaborate with accountability

versus consensus

Source: Pisano, G. (2019). The Hard Truth About Innovative Cultures. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved August 21, 2019 from https://hbr.org/product/the-hard-truth-about-innovative-cultures/R1901C-PDF-ENG

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How can we change culture to support innovation?

Culture is “how we do things”

Focus on changing behaviours (innovation in performance reviews,

encourage open dialogue and diverse opinions during crucial moments, do

not accept status quo, etc.), in addition to attitudes and values

Culture is shaped by incentives

Use monetary (bonuses, financial rewards) and non-monetary

(recognition, promotion, etc.) incentives

Culture is used in hiring decisions and to on-board new employees

Existing hiring guidelines may need to change. Monitor new employee

onboarding with existing employees, who may try to discourage new ways

of thinking

Source: Watkins, M. (2019) Ten Reasons Why Organizational Culture is So Crucial...and the Implications for Changing It. Retrieved August 20, 2019 from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/nine-reasons-organizational-culture-crucial-michael-watkins/

“Cultures are difficult to change. Changing a culture takes commitment on the part of leadership, often requiring years of concerned and consistent effort, including intensive work to communicate and reinforce desired new behaviors and values”

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Governance

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Components of governance

Quick Wins criteria and

funding

Idea management tool

Efficient and effective process

A governance team and cross-

functional coalition

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Define what a quick win is in the organization

Implementable in year

>300% ROI

Under $200K

While the maximum amount defined for quick wins will vary from company to

company, implementing the quick win in-year and the ability to realize a large ROI

in-year is critical

Ensures that the quick-win program is self-funding from year-to-year

Avoids some complexities around the capital approval process

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Select a great idea management software / innovation portal

Available 24x7 via web portal

Single sign-on

Availability

User friendly for idea submitter and portal

manager

Portal manager can organize, close ideas

to a master idea, track responses, etc.

Ease of use

Ability to create challenges or campaigns

For marketing reasons, the ability to link directly to a particular challenge

page

Challenge or campaign

Ability to comment on each other’s ideas to build upon them and

enhance

Ability for others to vote on ideas

Collaboration

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Structure the process to be efficient and effectiveInnovation Funnel and process

Quick Wins Governance team – small group of individuals who manage the quick wins process and respond to idea submitters

Cross-departmental coalition – a representative from each of the major

departments that assists the governance team

Ideas submitted into innovation portal

100% of ideas

Initial idea screening by governance team with assistance from coalition.

<5 min per idea to evaluate.

Only 10% of ideas remain after this

Idea submitter presents Dragon’s Den style to governance team and

coalition.

Only 5% of ideas remain

Implement1-3% of

ideas

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Key to this process: make good decisions

Best Practices for this self-funding program

1. Governance team trusts, but verifies the ROI, implementation costs, dates, risk, etc. from the idea submitter

2. ROI projections should be realistic and slightly conservative

3. Be consistent (i.e. cost of a call to the helpdesk)- allows for fair evaluation between ideas- enhances trust and legitimacy with Leadership

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R&R of governance team and cross-departmental coalition

• A representative from each of the major departments for 20% of their time per week• no more than 10 reps in total• matrixed to the Quick Wins program, as they

continue with their day-to-day jobs to maintain context to evaluate ideas

Roles and Responsibilities• Market the quick wins program to their department• On a weekly basis, review and provide feedback on new

ideas from the portal as they are submitted and tagged by the portal manager for their department

• Meet Dragon Den style once-per-week • If they don’t have the right context and background to

evaluate the idea in their department, it is their responsibility to research and find the answer

• Obtain approval for selected quick win that will affect their department

Qu

ick

Win

s G

ove

rnan

ce T

eam

Director: accountable for budget and final decision maker on whether an idea moves forward to implementation. Must be highly collaborative and able to navigate politics

Portal Manager: Manages relationship with portal vendor, responds to idea submitters (with

coalition member assistance), and manages comments in the portal

Marketing and Challenge Manager: advertising, designing and maintaining internal webpage,

designing and implementing innovation challenges, etc.

Program Manager: Coaches idea submitters with ROI, etc. and independently verifies for Dragon’s Den. Tracks costs and benefits for a period of 2

years. Funnel and process owner

Project Manager(s): work with idea submitters, who’s idea has been selected, to implement

Cross-departmental coalition

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Best practices: governance team and coalition

Respond to idea submitters in timely fashion with a truthful, but nicely worded, reason why their idea wasn’t selected. Or, lose credibility

Thank them for taking the time and contributing to this important goal

Be impartial and evaluate the idea based on merit, and not because it comes from “the favorite”

Be prepared to defend: document the reason why each idea was or was not selected

Choose the coalition members wisely

They are the face of the program and to a large extent, determine the success

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Traits of excellent Coalition Members

Extremely knowledgeable in their domain with a solid network

Respected by their peers

Comfortable with ambiguity and a champion of innovation

Great spokesperson and diplomatic

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Employee awareness of the quick wins program, and engagement or willingness to

participate

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How can you reach and resonate with thousands of internal employees?

• Market and advertise the Quick Wins program

• Use marketing content that includes “what is in it for me” and why is this important to the company

• Use gamification to build excitement• Wikipedia: the application of game-

design elements and game principles in non-game contexts

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Advertise to ensure team members know what to do & why

Advertise

• Communicate, communicate, and then communicate some more

• Communicate

• centrally through the CEO/VP, and

• through the coalition’s department leaders

• Example: feature story on main intranet page, posters, email, leverage existing large team meetings to present, etc.

Quick Wins Webpage

• Build an internal webpage to:

• Showcase the program, highlight successes, and show leadership support through quotes to build trust and buy-in

• Explain the process and set expectations

• Link to your innovation portal

• Create an easy to remember short link name

• Drive all advertising here: no ideas lost

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Give team members a reason to share their ideas

Make the case for why an employee should bother, or they won’t

“What is in it for me” examples:

- Innovation is a core value of the company and measured in the performance review

- happier customers = higher employee shareholder return

- annoying time-consuming item for customer and employee goes away

- and/or, use gamification (next slide)

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Use gamification to build excitement

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Create an innovation challenge or campaign

• Example: How can we improve reliability of our XYZ product to make life easier for our customers? We know that many customers leave us due to bad reliability

Make it a contest

• Give away 3 prizes that are exciting to the average employee

• Example: $1k prize

• Leave the contest open for 45-60 days

Use strategic criteria

• Any unique idea that has 20 votes from others is qualified for the random draw

• Encourages people to get involved with the portal, even if they don’t have an idea to submit this time

Market the contest

• Big contest = buzz and excitement

• Advertise everywhere and often

• Leverage leadership

On contest completion

• Communicate contest winners to promote culture of valuing all ideas (good or bad)

• Later, communicate the good ideas with submitter names to recognize

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Don’t succumb to the myth

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Myth: the great ideas will automatically start pouring in and be implemented if you install an innovation portal at your company

To be successful, all three components are necessary:• Leadership and culture• Governance• Awareness and engagement

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Have realistic expectations and keep the innovation funnel full

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“The best way to get a good idea is to get a lot of ideas.”

Clay ChristensenProfessor at Harvard Business School and author of The Innovator’s Dilemma

In my experience, for every 100 ideas, on average:• 1 will be great• 2 can be great in the future, if others build on the idea and work it

Continually create awareness through marketing to keep the innovation funnel full

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Revel in the intended and unintended consequences

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Higher employee engagement

Great ideas identified and implemented

Real life example: $3 million dollars additional revenue from a $30k idea

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Questions?

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