THEcollaborative innovation is a method to boost business growth and employee engagement at the same time. It is based on a conviction: it is by mobilizing the collective intelligence of employees that the most original and effective solutions are proposed. In other words, the field contributes to making your company more efficient. But how do you implement it? The key is idea management.

Collaborative innovation: what is it?

Collaborative innovation consists of broaden the scope of innovation stakeholders. In other words, innovation no longer depends solely on an R&D department. It can emerge anywhere in the company, thanks to employees or various stakeholders. In this case, the challenge is to structure collaborative innovation, to give it a framework, so that projects and ideas emerge in the best conditions.

Collaborative innovation can therefore be internal as well as external:

• En internal, it is based on the ideas and initiatives of employees. It breaks down the traditional silos of the company, organized into departments that do not really communicate with each other.
• En external, it relies on points of view outside the company and on partners.

The benefits of collaborative innovation

Collaborative innovation offers a multitude of benefits for your business:

• Developing creative synergies between the different stakeholders
• Promoting employee creativity by showing them how much impact they can have on the destiny of their company
• Involve employees in projects that are important to the company and no longer limits them to their areas of expertise identified during recruitment
• Raise awareness among all employees about what innovation is leading to a real change in mentality, an essential and unavoidable component of the digital transition so hoped for by leaders
• Bringing out new talents and new skills, or even allows you to discover new drivers and unexpected internal leaders
• Stimulating cross-functional collaboration by bringing together skills, backgrounds and personalities

The challenge: idea management

As mentioned above, collaborative innovation requires a framework. Indeed, to bring out ideas in the best possible conditions, collaborative innovation requires a method. But how do you know which method to use? Start by learning about collaborative innovation methods. through crowdfunding : sites like KissKissBankBank are precisely doing collaborative innovation! Indeed, they allow everyone to propose ideas, which can emerge thanks to the support of the community.

[Also read: The stages of participatory innovation – INFOGRAPHIC]

There are 3 phases in idea management:

1- The idea proposal phase

You need to give your employees a framework that will allow them to come up with their ideas.

2- The treatment of ideas

Not all ideas proposed by collaborators should be published without a moderation phase. So, once the ideas are proposed by collaborators, you need to qualify them. In other words, classify them, evaluate them and rate them. We recommend that you assemble an "innovation committee" (composed of members of your choice) who will do this moderation work. Each member of the innovation committee will qualify and evaluate the ideas, until they obtain an average that will decide whether the project deserves to be published or not.

3- The emergence of projects

Once the innovation committee judges that an idea deserves to emerge, it can be published. From then on, as on KissKissBankBank, it will be submitted to the vote and support of all the collaborators. They are the ones who will determine whether they want to see the project emerge or not.

What to do with ideas that are not accepted?

Some ideas will not make it past the idea processing stage, that's normal. However, always give an explanation when you don't accept an idea. Should the employee rework their project? Is it not in line with the company's current objectives? In short, give reasons. Because if the goal of collaborative innovation is to motivate employees to commit to the company, it would be a shame to upset them and generate the opposite effect.

Do you want to implement idea management in your company?