Talk-n-Tweet | Collaborative Innovation at Scale

Previously, I’ve described Why Crowdsourcing Works. Crowdsourcing is a case where you get many people who don’t one another collaborating toward a defined outcome.To reiterate the principle points about the value of crowdsourcing:

• Diverse inputs drive superior solutions
• Cognitive diversity requires spanning gaps in social networks

Simple enough, yet actually a rich field for work and analysis. To that end, I invite to two events happening simultaneously on Thursday 25 September 2014 (12 noon Eastern):

• LeAnna Carey’s radio show (link)
• Twitter Innochat (link)

I’ll be on the radio show talking with Lea Carey, Renee Hopkins and John Lewis. At the same time, the weekly #innochat will follow along with the radio program. It’s a unique chance to blend live conversation with online discussion. The main questions to be tackled will be:

1. How important is it to get diverse people to contribute to innovation, vs. singular creatives to generate innovations?
   • Doesn’t Steve Jobs point to the primacy of singular genius?
   • What is the model for cognitive diversity to generate innovation outcomes?
2. What differentiates sharing in large groups vs. small teams?
   • How much does familiarity mean trust?
   • How to handle different personalities that will intersect?
3. In environments where employee skepticism reigns, how do you change attitudes to open up sharing?
   • What are the ways in which skepticism can creep in?
   • What is the #1 issue that must be addressed?
4. What are motivations for employees to contribute to an innovation program?
   • How much does “what’s in it for me?” come into play?
   • What are the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations?
5. What techniques help drive participation in crowdsourced innovation programs?
   • What influence do senior executives have?
   • What influence does peer participation have?
   • How can gamification drive greater participation?

As a reminder, the event time across time zones:

Thursday 25 September 2014
9 am Pacific
12 noon Eastern
6 pm Central European Time

I look forward to hearing your take on this issue.