Any practitioner ofcollaborative innovation practitioner is convinced that this approach is strategic. However, there are many challenges they face, in relation to the management and corporate culture. To overcome these challenges, we interviewed professionals atcollaborative innovation and collected their good practices. All the ideas they gave us have been compiled in a collection that can be downloaded at the end of this article and is intended as an aid tocollaborative innovation. This article proposes an extract of the good practices from the collection.

So how do we ensure thatcollaborative innovation is perceived at a strategic level? How can a culture ofcollaborative innovation be put in place when "culture cannot be decreed"? How do you get managers and top managers on board?

The challenges ofcollaborative innovation

Doyou need help atcollaborative innovation? Then start by reassuring yourself that you are not alone. Indeed, regardless of the company from which they come, professionals atcollaborative innovation are often faced with similar challenges. Amongst the most common are :

• The culture of participation is often suggested by leaders. The "participative" culture is then confronted with a persistent "top-down" culture. Moreover, it happens that managers do not want to listen to proposals from lower hierarchical levels.
• Althoughcollaborative innovation cannot do without sponsors, it should not be entirely dependent on these sponsor(s). Because if your sponsor leaves the organisation, will the culture be strong enough to survive without them?
• Innovation is still too often a trend, superimposed on a pyramid culture. How can we really shake up the existing culture?

[Read also: The reference frame of thecollaborative innovation by INNOV'ACTEURS, association of which Beeshake is a member and on the Board of Directors since 2020]

Shared good practice: a real help for thecollaborative innovation

Involving Human Resources

Human Resources are an aid tocollaborative innovation. They have a crucial role to play in legitimisingcollaborative innovation and making it part of the daily life of employees. Here is how you can involve them:

• Quite simply, by bringing them to the table as soon as your desire to initiate a process ofcollaborative innovation takes shape.
• By identifying an HR sponsor sponsor: his or her role would be to reassure reluctant managers as well as employees who have ideas but who would not dare to take the plunge.
• By asking them to add a line oncollaborative innovation in the job description of the employees. This will make it an objective in its own right.
• By asking them to integratecollaborative innovation into theonboarding of new recruits. This will enable all new employees to be brought on board, or at least to be made aware of this, as soon as they join the company.

Helping (top) management to be exemplary

To be a help tocollaborative innovation, top-managers and managers mustbe exemplary and carry the principles of a more participative corporate culture. You can encourage them to be exemplary:

• By setting up rituals that will encourage them to adopt a more participatory approach themselves: feedback, workshops, etc.
• By asking managers to come up with ideas, just as other employees do.
• By involving top management in your communications (videos, interviews, etc. widely distributed). Have them talk about projects carried out by employees in the field.
• By asking managers to be involved in the implementation of the ideas they have decided on.

Formalise the rules of the game

It is very important to formalise the rules ofcollaborative innovation in your organisation, in order to provide a comfortable framework for all employees and managers who wish to participate. To formalise and disseminate this framework, you can for example:

• Drafting a charter collaborative innovation. This charter can even be co-constructed with the employees.
• Draft a document defining the conditions of intellectual property.

[Read also: Before launching a programme atcollaborative innovation : everything you need to know]

Acculturate managers to the participative culture

Everyone has to take time to get used to and digest a new corporate culture. This is a real acculturation process. Take steps to help managers understand the principles of the new culture, so that they can better adapt to it. This is how you will remove the reluctance. For example:

• Distribute acculturation content for managers only You can distribute a few MOOCs, or go so far as to create a real acculturation course, with certification at the end! You can simply distribute a few MOOCs, or go so far as to create real acculturation courses, with certification at the end!
• Suggest to managers that they set new objectivesfor their teamscollaborative innovation . This will show them that you have confidence in them, as you are giving them the keys to infuse innovation into the organisation.

Support your scheme on themes that bring people together

If you want your employees to participate in innovation, it is best to focus on unifying themes:

• The CSR is a crucial theme that unites employees inside and outside the company. It brings us back to a common and global goal, which is why it often generates a great deal of participation.
• Performance Performance: because it is rewarding for employees to come up with ideas that will directly benefit the business.
• QWL : because this theme directly concerns employees, who are generally full of ideas for improving their own quality of life at work.

Read also: Organising a call for ideas: on which themes]

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