To stimulate innovation in your company, it is in your interest to mobilise your employees. After all, they are usually the first to notice any malfunctions in your processes, or improvements that could be made to your products. This is the time to launch a collaborative innovationprogramme. Indeed, thanks to such a system, all your employees will be able to propose solutions to participate in the continuous improvement of your organisation and solve the daily irritants.

Here are 3 downloadable infographics that will guide you through yourcollaborative innovation programme.

When innovation in business becomes collaborative

The 2 types ofcollaborative innovation

When you ask your employees to propose innovation projects, you must frame your request. Are you asking them to make proposals on specific themes? Do you need to collect ideas all year round, or just for a certain period? There are two possible scenarios:

• You want to collect ideas continuously, all year round. In this case, yourcollaborative innovation programme is continuous. You can ask your employees to focus on certain topics (social and environmental responsibility, digital, etc.), or you can leave them free to submit their ideas on any topic that they think could improve daily life.
• You prefer to make calls for projects.This is calledcollaborative innovation . In this case, you determine a period and one or more innovation themes.

Note that you do not necessarily have to choose between the two! You can decide to set up a continuous programme ofcollaborative innovation , with a few calls for projects during the year.

The actors of thecollaborative innovation

We have identified 6 types of actors you can mobilise in yourcollaborative innovation programme:

• All the employees. They are the collaborators. Those who propose ideas, vote for the initiatives they prefer, join project teams...
• Innovation ambassadors. They are particularly enthusiastic, which is why you can turn them into a feedback community. In particular, they will comment on and share innovation projects, to spread the right attitude throughout the organisation.
• The coordinator. This is the person who orchestrates thecollaborative innovation. He is the referent and guarantor of the processes in your organisation.
• Managers. You probably already know this, but their role is essential! Indeed, it is very important that managers encourage their teams in thecollaborative innovation process. If they are a hindrance, it is more difficult! [READ ALSO: Survival guide for innovators who act in hierarchical companies].
• The innovation committee. Ideally, it is composed of very different profiles that are representative of the organisation. This is the committee that moderates and evaluates projects before submitting them for approval by all employees, or directly to the management committee.
• The Management Committee. It validates the concrete implementation of the most relevant innovation projects.

The 3 steps of yourcollaborative innovation

1- The ideation stage

Yourcollaborative innovationprogramme starts with idea generation. It is therefore essential to facilitate the ideation process. This process must be accessible to every employee, regardless of their hierarchical level. An employee in the field should be able to propose an idea as much as a manager.

Furthermore, ifcollaborative innovation is about solving irritants, you need to help employees identify the "pebbles in their shoe". You can do this by conducting regular surveys and polls. Ask questions that reveal the difficulties encountered by your employees.

Finally, use collective intelligence to stimulate idea generation! Ideation can be stimulated in groups. Organise rituals that help to step back and stimulate creativity. For example, peer-to-peer learning sessions, Codev sessions, World Cafés, etc.

2- Selection of ideas

The selection of ideas is the second stage of yourcollaborative innovation programme. This phase is prepared before the ideation phase. Indeed, by defining in advance the idea selection committee, the evaluation criteria and the selection process (arbitrary moderation? Scoring?), you will make this stage really effective.

You can also involve employees in the selection process. Thus, after an initial moderation by the dedicated committee, call on the collective intelligence. Ask employees to vote for the ideas they consider the most relevant, and thus highlight the initiatives that are unanimously supported. These are the initiatives that should be implemented as a priority.

3- Experimentation and implementation of ideas

The last stage of yourcollaborative innovation programme is implementation, and therefore the concretisation of ideas. To succeed in acollaborative innovation approach, you must know how to switch from proposing ideas to putting them into place. This stage therefore consists first of all in collecting the most popular ideas. Then, it is a matter of contacting their authors to organise an implementation plan.

Finally, think about making theprogress of projects visible (prototyping, industrialisation). It is always satisfying to follow the development of projects that you have supported!

Tailor your programme to the type of innovation you are looking for

Although the process described above is a standard one, you can adapt yourcollaborative innovation programme according to its purpose.

You are looking to generate easy to implement continuous improvement ideas

If you are looking to generate simple ideas that will contribute tocontinuous improvement, the idea selection process is usually fairly quick to set up. This process follows 3 main steps:

1. A quick evaluation is usually enough to validate the initiative. It is approved by the innovator's manager, by a selection committee, or through the unanimous support of the employees.
2. The deployment of the idea must be rapid. It can be done with a multiplication kit available to all, and easy to apply.
3. All that remains to be done is to measure the effectiveness of the innovation by surveying those who have used the multiplication kit: have they seen the expected results?

You seek to generate deep and complex innovations

The innovation process is naturally longer and more complex when the innovation brings about a profound change and requires a budget to develop. There are four stages in which this type of innovation emerges:

1. Employees propose their ideas. These are then pre-selected, ranked and scored by a dedicated committee. Only the most relevant ideas for your organisation emerge.
2. Employees then choose to support their favourite ideas, for example by voting. In this way, even if they do not propose an idea, they participate in the collaborative dynamics of innovation.
3. A steering committee then evaluates the innovations that have received the most support. It then selects those to be developed in the field.
4. The last phase is a time of promotion and follow-up. Innovators are given a communication kit to help them promote their idea. They are then accompanied from the prototyping stage to the industrialisation of their innovation.