To makecollaborative innovation a success in your organisation, you need to prepare certain steps. From the preparation of the scheme, to its animation and the follow-up of the projects, it is essential to take into account some key success factors.

Why hascollaborative innovation become essential?

The culture ofcollaborative innovation has proven its worth. In an increasingly competitive landscape, it is essential for companies to innovate quickly and effectively. Yet employees in the field, faced with a variety of irritants, are in the best position to find solutions. It is therefore essential to give them a voice.

Succeeding in the ideation stage to succeed in thecollaborative innovation

Determine and disseminate a framework

Making a success ofcollaborative innovation in a company starts with a successful ideation stage. But first you need to determine the framework of the scheme. In particular, you need to:

• Determine the time frame in which you wish to includecollaborative innovation: whether you wish to organise one-off innovation challenges, or whether you wish to keep innovation alive throughout the year.
• Define the priority topics on which you want your employees to give ideas.
• Provide guidelines and tutorials that explain to your staff what they can and cannot do, what they should and should not do.
• Identify the actors ofcollaborative innovation in your company, including the members of the idea selection committee.
• Prepare for theaftermath at a very early stage: once an idea is selected, what happens to it? Does it benefit from a sum of money to be developed? Or specific support? Will the project leaders be able to allocate time to its development?

The employees must then become aware of the framework you have defined . This can be done through articles, video tutorials, and any other content you wish. Your employees will then feel safe and confident to propose their ideas.

Facilitate ideation

Once you have disseminated the trust framework to your staff, the ideation can begin. And you can help your employees to come up with ideas! There are several ways in which you can facilitate ideation:

• By coming up with the first ideas yourself (or asking accomplices and ambassadors to do so). Because the first ideas generally have difficulty emerging. But once this stage is over, employees dare to propose more and emulation can take place.
• By monitoring the activity on your platform atcollaborative innovation. Look out for proposed projects. When a new initiative is published, don't hesitate to call on those who might be interested. Get the conversation going again, and generate as much interaction as possible!
• By publishing surveys to stimulate the participation of all employees. The survey is a great format because it is very easy to create and participate in.

Select and monitor projects

Collectively select the best ideas

We have advised you above toidentify and convene a selection committee to choose which ideas should be developed. This selection committee is essential, as it ensures that no good idea is left out.

However, it is ideal toalso involve all employees in the selection of the best ideas. To do this, we advise you to set up a voting system. It is then up to you to determine the value of this vote. Is it an indication for the selection committee? Does it result in a "jury prize"? Does the vote allow you to shortlist projects? You can determine the level of co-construction, as long as you communicate clearly how the idea selection process works.

Follow up on projects, even after ideation

Ideation is a key stage, but successfulcollaborative innovation does not depend on this stage alone. The selection and monitoring of projects are essential moments. This is why we advised you at the beginning of this article to define the development stages of the projects in advance.

In addition, think about communicating about the development of the selected projects. Because when an idea is selected for development, employees who have taken the time to support it (for example by voting) will certainly want to follow its progress! Create a quarterly newsletter dedicated to projects fromcollaborative innovation, and give them news.

3 key success factors for a successfulcollaborative innovation

Stimulating ideation and collective intelligence

To be successfulcollaborative innovation, you need to stimulate your employees. Start by regularly providing inspiring content that boosts creativity. In this way you will strengthen your animation system.

[READ ALSO: 3 inspiring videos on the collective (to watch in times of crisis)]

Another good practice is to organise events to stimulate creativity. Invite speakers, sociologists, coaches, etc. Organise feedback that will make your employees think and inspire them to take action.

Finally, stimulatecollective intelligence! Organise ideation workshops to help ideas emerge. In small groups, face-to-face or remotely, you will help your employees to collectively unleash their creativity and ideas.

Recognition

Depending on your corporate culture, your employees may be very sensitive to recognition. This recognition can take two forms:

• Recognition of each person's contribution. Just be careful not to systematically value the same people. Be sure to recognise the smallest contribution in order to value all participants, even the most timid. To do this, broadcast interviews or photoquotes of the contributors, for example.
• Recognition of the best ideas. It is up to you to decide what rewards you will give, and the conditions of that recognition.

The measure

To succeed atcollaborative innovation is good, but when can we talk about success? Set yourself numerical targets:

• How many projects do you want to see emerge?
• Over what period?
• How many projects do you want to develop each year?
• For what budget?

By keeping an eye on the results, you will be able to see if the operation is really successful!