Focused Open Innovation

Open Innovation has become a mature construct, and rightly so. For many years, larger organisations sought to acquire and own the resources needed to drive innovation as it was believed that this would provide a competitive edge. Now we realise that this mind-set was too narrow. Often it is better to work with people outside of an organisation to find or implement more or better ideas as their diverse competences enrich and accelerate innovation processes

Open innovation is a distinctive way of solving problems and capturing opportunities. It brings three main benefits: it facilitates learning; provides additional resources and challenges the ways by which things are done..

Social Enterprises, in particular, have much to gain from Open Innovation. Often resources are limited but, because their mission is humanitarian, there will always be people willing to help. This can make a big difference. For example, teachers in the USA became increasingly concerned that rural children were falling behind because their home-work required access to the internet. Many homes in the countryside do not have internet connectivity. Teachers reached out to organisations with the technical know-how and resources to help. In this case, Google volunteered to become involved. They launched pilot projects to transform School Buses into Rolling Study Halls with internet access and an on-board technical adviser. Already, the ‘Homework Gap’ is narrowing. Without the technical and financial help of Google, it is likely that the Rolling Study Halls concept would never have developed.

A STRUCTURED APPROACH

The 1-2-3 Go! framework provides a simple procedure for facilitating open innovation. It main use is to help an organisation that has an ambition that it does not know how fulfil. In step one the emphasis is on gathering insight and ideas from people already involved. Step two finds exemplars – examples of good practice – as these provide tried-and-tested insights into what can be done. Step three finds ways to look ahead so that developments, often technological, can be used to expand the range of opportunities that are available. The final step (Go!) enables options to be reviewed, decisions to be taken and development projects to be organised..

1-2-3 Go! is a four-step approach. In step one the emphasis is on gathering insight and ideas from people already involved. Step two finds exemplars – examples of good practice – as these provide tried-and-tested insights into what can be done. Step three finds ways to look ahead so that developments, often technological, can be used to expand the range of opportunities that are available. The final step (Go!) enables options to be reviewed, decisions to be taken and development projects to be organised.

Step One of 1-2-3 Go! begins with defining an ambition. This is done by selecting a date in the future and imagining what different things might be happening on that date. It is important to realise that an ambition should not be a fixed goal, as new things will be learnt. Rather it is a start-point for a journey of discovery. Once an ambition is defined then a survey will need to be undertaken to gather ideas from everyone in the organisation, or is in some way connected to it. These ideas should be treated as inputs for a brainstorming process. This is not a time for judgement or evaluation. The aim is to collect what people are already thinking to enrich your understanding of opportunities and how you might move forward. You should capture differences between people’s views and not attempt to summarise, rather reflect all available viewpoints.

Step Two requires that you to look outside of your own organisation. You need to find examples of (say) three organisations that are close to achieving your ambition. Your task will be to find out how they did it. You should not be limited to organisations like your own. If you take the example of the theatre working with children with mobility difficulties, they will need to find organisations working successfully with severely impaired children that may be schools, church organisations or inspiring parents.

Step Three requires that you obtain informed views about how your ambition could be affected by changes in technology or other developments. You should obtain expert input on Potential High Impact Technologies that can ‘change the game’.

Step Go! requires that you organise all of the insights that you have gained, decide how to move forward and set up a project organisation to get things moving.

If you are interested in knowing more about 123Go! write to enquiries@richmondconsult.com