Innovation in a (gift) box: Can $ 1000 say more than a 1000 words ?

Everyone likes a gift right? So what if you could actually make innovation something that is surprising and playful to your employees and invite them to surprise themselves and their company! According to this article “Adobe ” has found a possible path to the Holy Grail of corporate innovation.

While the concept of ‘ innovation in a can’  was something I had lingering in the back of my head for some time now (unfortunately not executing it ) I totally like the fact that it mixes two simple ingredients;  1. give people a gift  (an easy to use framework to play around and experiment with) and 2. give them your trust (a $ 1000 worth) in empowerment.

Would it be just this easy to get employees generating innovative ideas and help them to translate these into deployable MVP’s ? According to my Australian colleagues at Strategy Group it should be. Provided some other ‘groundwork’ at corporate level already has been done, it is at least a great way to get started and create some good energy.

Before starting though it might be wise to investigate some of the day – to – day ‘hurdles’ one can expect after the first positive energy of test flight CORP. 0001 fades away;   what about creating some landing gear and a good runway for these MVP’s to land on like: Corporate Governance,  KPI & target settings, and other HR- related rating systems. You don’t want the effort and commitment of your employees to crash after just this first try. Is the organisation and Sr. management up for creating new processes and bypassing existing guidelines – IT systems – partnership models and much more unknown changes to come ?

I will definitely zoom in more closely on this Adobe Kickbox as a tool. Although its processes are perhaps something a lot of us have been embracing in the work we do, the actual visualisation and tangibility of it gives it a new dimension I think.

@ my THNK colleagues on the Vitality challenge.. ‘ We were definitely on to something with our ‘ vital surprises box ‘ :-)….’

To be continued.

 

Liselore

 

The author of this blog helps organisations take a holistic and often crowdsourced approach as part of their digital strategy & innovation approach.  She uses existing concepts & tools and develops personalised concepts in co-creation as part of her own company toolbox.