Innovation Exercisesand Insightsby Lindegaard

Innovation Excercises and Insights by @Lindegaard/1
by @Lindegaard
Be Competitively Unpredictable!
- Make It Happen Trough Innovation
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Dear friends and innovators,
Here you get a set of exercises, tools and insights
that I hope can help you in your work with inno-
vation.
You are welcome to use this in any way you see ft
as long as you give due credit.
If you are a consultant or teacher, use the exerci-
ses in your interactions with clients and students.
If you work in a company, use them in training
sessions or to get some inspiration for solving
your innovation challenges. Its up to you!
Te only thing I ask for in return is that you
share my work with your colleagues, friends and
network. Lets work together to make the (open)
innovation movement go even further!
You are of course also welcome to book me for
a talk, session or workshop if you want a more
facilitated approach to the exercises and tools.
Best regards,
Stefan Lindegaard
www.15inno.com
stefanlindegaard@me.com
@lindegaard
Be Competitively Unpredictable! ........................................................................... 7
Open Innovation in Your Company
What is Open Innovation? Crowdsourcing?
User innovation? Co-Creation? .............................................................................. 13
Exercises:
- Why open innovation ........................................................................................... 15
- Corporate maturity ................................................................................................ 15
- Internal readiness overview ................................................................................ 16
- External readiness overview ............................................................................... 16
- Types of external input ......................................................................................... 17
- Value pools .............................................................................................................. 17
- Key value pools ...................................................................................................... 18
- Challenges-brainstorm ....................................................................................... 18
- Challenges-overview ............................................................................................ 19
- Why will executives resist your eforts? .............................................................. 19
- Why will executives support your eforts? .......................................................... 20
- Implementation barriers ....................................................................................... 20
- Organizing for open innovation ......................................................................... 21
Communication, Tought Leadership and Social Media
Great Innovators Are Great Communicators! ...................................................... 23
Exercises:
- Te big picture ....................................................................................................... 25
- Value pools .............................................................................................................. 25
- Tought leadership characteristics ...................................................................... 26
- Tought leadership industry examples ............................................................... 27
- Our initiatives ......................................................................................................... 28
- Social media tools and services ............................................................................ 28
- Your platform and channels ................................................................................. 29
- Whats in it for me and my colleagues? ............................................................... 29
- Key barriers for social media ............................................................................... 30
- Overcoming social media barriers ...................................................................... 30
- 10 keywords for social media use.......................................................................... 31
- Social media keywords .......................................................................................... 31
- Team roles ............................................................................................................... 32
- Content creation ..................................................................................................... 32
- Te elevator pitch ................................................................................................... 33
Innovation Culture
Strategies for Building and Supporting an Innovation Culture ......................... 35
Exercises:
- Toolbox and mindset: key skills for individuals ................................................. 38
- Toolbox and mindset: key skills for organization/team .................................... 38
- Inspirational sources for developing toolbox and mindset .............................. 39
- People and projects ............................................................................................... 39
- Understanding/use of innovation concepts and methodologies ..................... 40
- Common language ................................................................................................. 40
- Innovation boosters ............................................................................................... 41
- Innovation killers ................................................................................................... 41
- Why is your company innovative? ....................................................................... 42
- Foundation and perception .................................................................................. 42
- Need for education/overview ............................................................................... 43
- Need for education/actions .................................................................................. 43
Te Corporate Innovation Team
Open Innovation Teams: What Do Tey Look Like? .......................................... 45
Exercises:
- Stakeholder expectations ...................................................................................... 47
- Jobs to get done/category overview ................................................................... 47
- Jobs to get done/present and future ..................................................................... 48
- Key objectives ......................................................................................................... 48
Networking
Why Networking is Important for Innovation ..................................................... 51
Exercises:
- Current network vs future need ........................................................................... 55
- Types of networking .............................................................................................. 55
- Your personal / team brand .................................................................................. 56
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Competitively unpredictable: two
words that spell the key to success in
todays fast paced, highly competiti-
ve business arena. If your company
has the ability to consistently outma-
neuver the competition in ways they
never see coming, then the future is
bright. If, on the other hand, your at-
tempts at innovation are humdrum
and highly predictable, you will be
the corporate equivalent of Wile E.
Coyote, doomed to forever chasing
the more nimble, faster Road Runner
without success.
Why is being competitively unpredic-
table so essential now? One key re-
ason is the ever-shrinking window of
opportunity. In the past decades, de-
pending on your industry, you could
count on having three or fve or even
seven years afer bringing something
new to market to make good money
before you needed to come up with
the next new thing to keep revenues
growing.
Be Competitively Unpredictable!
- Make it Happen Trough Innovation
Tis is no longer the case. While the
pace of innovation used to be fast, it
was still manageable. Now the win-
dow of opportunity is getting shorter
and closing faster so youre forced to
innovate ever more rapidly. One of
the best examples is the mobile pho-
ne industry, where they are now co-
unting in months, not years, between
new product introductions.
Tis also makes timing a key element
of innovation as you need to hit the
market at the right time not too
late, but not too early either - with
the right ofering or you fall behind
your competitors, being forced to go
in directions they dictate rather than
charting your own future.
At the same time that the window of
opportunity is narrowing, compe-
tition overall is becoming more and
more unpredictable. Your competi-
tors are using open innovation to un-
cover more market opportunities and
the results are starting to show. And
new competitors are coming out of
nowhere and perhaps from diferent
industries to completely disrupt your
market and destabilize your industry.
Te book industry is a great example
here. No one really expected Amazon
to become such a disruptive force as
they have turned out to be. First, they
hit the book selling industry, putting
major chains like Borders out of bu-
siness and prompting many indepen-
dent booksellers to close as well. Tat
was amazing enough but founder
Jef Bezos had much bigger plans in
mind. Now the company is not just
the worlds biggest online retailer of
books but the biggest online retailer,
period, ofering everything imagina-
ble, from sofware and electronics to
furniture, food, clothing, home go-
ods, and drug store items. Competi-
tors like WalMart are fghting to keep
up with the ease of online shopping
and attractive pricing Amazon.com
ofers. Te next disruptive move for
Amazon might be in data manage-
ment.
With companies being able to morph
of into new business areas much
more quickly than ever before, your
objective is to become one of the
competitively unpredictable compa-
nies, rather than a victim of competi-
tive unpredictability.
Heres the bad news: We lack visio-
nary innovation executives, leaders
and champions to make this happen.
Too ofen, they are playing catch up,
chasing the competition rather than
making their own organizations
competitively unpredictable thro-
ugh innovation not just in products
and services but also in business pro-
cesses, delivery channels and busi-
ness models. Based on interactions
Ive had with companies around the
world, here is why I think this is the
case:
Although many companies are mo-
ving in the right direction with an
increased focus on open innovation
and business model innovation, I still
see too many innovation leaders who
are stuck because they do not develop
themselves and their teams.
One key reason is that they are not
experimenting (enough) with ways in
which they can innovate on the inno-
vation process itself. At times, I even
meet corporate innovation teams that
have not even heard about open in-
novation. Tis is quite shocking to
me and it leads me to my next point.
Occasionally, every member of a cor-
porate innovation team, especially the
leaders, needs to take a hard look in the
mirror and ask these two questions:
Do I have the right mindset, the kno-
whow and the toolbox needed to lead
my companys eforts for innovation
in times like this? Te next question
is even more important: Do I have a
process that keeps me up updated on
the innovation trends and practices
that my company needs to embrace to
beat the competition?
I dont think that corporate innovators
get complacent as such. Tey are just
too busy getting things done and they
do not set aside the time needed to in-
vest in themselves. Tis becomes quite
obvious at my sessions where I ofen
ask how ofen they just sit back and
refect on the work they are doing and
the challenges they face. Not many pe-
ople at all have this time for refection.
Tis is poor decision-making with re-
gards to prioritizing ones time, and it
will hurt you in the long run.
Do you have the courage to tell the
truth (and perhaps risk your job)
when you can see that your compa-
ny is moving in the wrong direction
with your innovation eforts? Or do
you just accept things are they are?
Tis one is difcult as corporate in-
novation teams ofen operate in or-
ganizations that are political to a les-
ser or higher degree. Sometimes you
need a more subtle approach, but you
must never lose your courage to spe-
ak up when things move in the wrong
direction.
Most corporate innovation teams
that I work with buy into the idea that
their key role is to facilitate in a way
that helps innovation take root at the
business units and to integrate exter-
nal resources into the innovation
process.
Tis is a good thing, but they do not
realize the importance of commu-
nication related to these challenges.
Tey need to have on-going conver-
sations with internal as well as exter-
nal stakeholders if they want to suc-
ceed as innovation facilitators and
integrators and too many fail on this.
Tey do not innovate on the
innovation process
Tey lack communication skills
and eforts
Tey lack the courage to speak up
Tey do not develop their mindset
and toolbox
Other Challenges
In some companies, innovation le-
aders are fghting a battle that has
nothing to do with the shortcomings
listed above. Tis is a battle that will
sound familiar to many of you. On
one side, we fnd a visionary innova-
tion leader and a strong innovation
team. Tis leader and his team have
a vision and the ideas that can bring
long-term prosperity to the company
if they are executed well and given
the time to do so.
On the other side, we have a CFO,
who has been given the mandate to
cut down on costs. Tis is fair eno-
ugh in tough times, but the problem
is that the CFO and his allies do not
really know much about innovation.
Tey cut too deep. Tey lose their pa-
tience. No wonder. You get immedia-
te results by cutting costs and if suc-
cessful you have to wait for a while
to see the results of innovation. If you
dont know how innovation works,
this becomes a no-brainer.
Te judge is the CEO. Or is it? Not
really, because the owners (the bo-
ard) judges the CEO and in sluggish
economic times like these what mat-
ters are short-term results. Heck, in
many companies you even have a
short-term focus when the economy
is doing well. Te key problem is that
no one really judges the board. You
could argue that market does so, but
in such cases the blame hits the CEO,
not the board. You are stuck with the
board.
No one wins this battle. Te employ-
ees are taken as hostages, the custo-
mers or end-users lose out on the be-
nefts of innovation and in the long
term the shareholders will sufer. Te
latter is true because there is actual-
ly one winner. Tat is the competitor
that decides to become competitive-
ly unpredictable through innovation
and gets this right.
Te challenges Ive outlined here
are tough to overcome. Tey require
having a smart innovation strategy,
something many companies lack.
Youll also need the right culture and
people in place, along with a structu-
re for pursuing innovation that sup-
ports the goal of being competitively
unpredictable. In fact, you may need
to completely rethink how your busi-
ness pursues innovation. Tis is hard
work. But if you succeed and become
truly competitively unpredictable,
the rewards will be many and long-la-
sting. And given the pace of change,
what other choice do you really have?
Essential Elements
Tere are some essential elements
that executives, innovation leaders
and other employees working with
innovation should look into on the-
ir path to becoming competitively
unpredictable. Te elements include:
Innovation Strategy: How is inno-
vation tied to our overall corporate
strategy? What do we want to achie-
ve? Where do we want to go? Tis
seems to be basic but, oddly, many
companies fail at innovation because
they dont know the answers to these
questions.
Innovation Setup: Innovation is
about far more than just new pro-
ducts and services. What types of of
innovation matter today and in the
future? How to do you structure in-
novation? Are you aware of the im-
portance of communication? Do you
have processes in place so that you
learn from your failures?
Innovation Culture: You need to
understand the characteristics of a
culture that would support it being
competitively unpredictable. Tis in-
cludes a common language around
competitively unpredictability, cre-
ating a networked culture and defe-
ating the corporate antibodies that
fght against change and innovation
in nearly every organization.
Innovation People: Without the
right people who possess the right
skills and mindset, becoming com-
petitively unpredictable will not be
possible. Here you must understand
how to identify and develop the right
people with the right traits and skills
and the diferent roles to be played by
executives, managers and employees
in a competitively unpredictable or-
ganization.
Being competitively unpredictable
is not a new concept. Whats new is
that visionary companies are taking
a more strategic approach to it, ma-
king a conscious decision to become
competitively unpredictable. Tese
companies realize that only those bu-
sinesses that deliver a steady stream
of better products, services and inno-
vative business models at a rapid pace
will survive and thrive in a global
marketplace where its possible for an
unknown startup to combine rapid
technological advances and smarter
thinking to produce the next great
new thing.
Join me as we explore how your com-
pany can learn to keep the competi-
tion guessing and keep your market
growing by embracing an efective
strategy and approach to innovation.
Open
Innovation
in Your Company
What is Open Innovation?
Crowd-sourcing?
User Innovation?
Co-creation?
Many people ask what open inno-
vation is. I suggest that you view
open innovation as a philosophy or
a mindset that you should embrace
within your organization. In a more
practical defnition, open innova-
tion is about bridging internal and
external resources and act on those
opportunities. Te value proposition
(better innovation to market faster)
this gives companies that get it right
is simply too good to miss out on.
I also like this quote from Henry
Chesbrough; Open innovation is a
paradigm that assumes that frms can
and should use external ideas as well
as internal ideas, and internal and
external paths to market, as the frms
look to advance their technology
Tis still leaves three other questions:
What is crowdsourcing?
Wikipedia states that crowdsourcing
is the act of outsourcing tasks, tradi-
tionally performed by an employee or
contractor, to a large group of people
or community (a crowd), through an
open call. I view crowdsourcing as
a tool that can be used to bring exter-
nal input into your organizations.
What is user-driven innovation?
I view this as a technique in which
companies gain insights from users,
which can then be used in the in-
novation process. I think that a key
element in user-driven innovation is
the observation of users rather than
the use of questionnaires and focus
groups. Erich von Hippel is an im-
portant infuencer with his contribu-
tions on lead-user innovation.
What is co-creation?
Here Wikipedia states that co-cre-
ation views markets as forums for
frms and active customers to share,
combine and renew each others reso-
urces and capabilities to create value
through new forms of interaction,
service and learning mechanisms. It
difers from the traditional active frm
passive consumer market construct
of the past. I like how C.K. Prahalad
and Venkat Ramaswamy argue that
value will be increasingly co-created
by the frm and the customer, they ar-
gued, rather than being created enti-
rely inside the frm.
Tese terms overlap which leaves
plenty of room for confusion, but
I hope this short overview helps.
Communication,
Tought Leadership
and Social Media
Great Innovators Are Great Communicators!
Corporate innovation teams at big
companies need to pay more atten-
tion to communication if they want
to improve their success rate of their
innovation outcomes.
Tey need to communicate internal-
ly in order to get the support needed
to make innovation happen and they
need to communicate externally in
order to be able to bring in the best
external resources to the innovation
process.
I ofen state that when we talk abo-
ut the intersection of innovation and
communication in the forms of PR,
branding and promotion, this used to
be all about the innovation outcomes
(products and services). Te sales and
marketing functions deal with this so
the innovation people did not really
have to focus on innovation. Tis is
changing for a couple of reasons.
One is that innovation is getting more
and more holistic. You can no longer
just innovate in the R&D unit and
then let other functions take over. It
is all tied together and the communi-
cation skills needed to bring innova-
tion to market are getting increasing
important.
Another reason, which builds further
on my frst point is that corporate in-
novation teams that really care about
their success rate pay more attention
to what happens afer they let go of
their work. Te best communica-
tors are ofen those who created the
product or service if they did the-
ir job well (focused on getting a job
done for a paying customer). If so,
they need to be involved on how to
position and sell the innovation as it
enters the value chain and eventually
hits the customers or end-users.
What can corporate innovation teams
and innovators in general do to
improve their communication skills?
Here you get some of my views.
Get started: Tis sounds obvious, but
it is kind of scary to witness the num-
ber of corporate innovation teams
with no focus on the communication
aspect of their corporate innovation
capabilities. Tey have no idea why
this even matters and as such they
dont have any strategy or tactical to-
ols to work with. Tey dont develop
their skills and mindset either.
Have a clear message that resonates
with the audience: Too ofen, corpo-
rate functions involved with innova-
tion eforts are too caught up in the
own world and thus they communi-
cate with their own terms and words
even though this might not resonate
with the audience. You need to see
the bigger picture and go beyond
your own small world.
Some might argue that this is why
you let corporate communications
teams do the work as they are trained
for this. Tis is true, but only to some
degree. Te biggest problem here is
that corporate communication pe-
ople dont really know about innova-
tion and how this happens. Tis lack
of understanding can create problems
internally as well as externally.
Use a range of communication tools:
Since most corporate innovation te-
ams are not trained communicators
(and defnitely not in the broad sense
that I advocate for), they might as-
sume this is just about exposure on
their intranet and in traditional me-
dia channels. Tey need to go beyond
this and three unconventional ways
for many would be the use of stake-
holder management, networking and
social media. We should not get cau-
ght up in semantics here, but yes, I
think the frst two can be categorized
as communication tools if used pro-
perly.
Combine internal and external focus:
Communication has become trickier
for corporate innovation teams in the
era of open innovation as they need
to communicate internally as well as
externally. A key reason for internal
communication is that you can make
good things happen faster if your em-
ployees believe that they are innova-
tive. A key reason for external com-
munication is that you need to court
potential innovation partners in your
eforts of becoming the preferred
partner of choice within the innova-
tion ecosystems in your industry.
Sometimes you can and should com-
bine both with the reasoning that it
is easier to get good internal progress
if employees can read or hear about
their innovation eforts in the outside
world. Perception is a powerful ele-
ment when creating a strong innova-
tion culture.
Strategies for Building
and Supporting an Innovation Culture
Innovation Culture
We ofen hear that a company sets
out to create a strong innovation cul-
ture. Tis very rarely succeeds and a
key reason for this is that only two
things can really change an ailing in-
novation culture for the better.
One is a truly burning platform. If
your company is about to go down
within a very short time, things can
change and if the company survives
there might be room for a better in-
novation culture. You get a chance for
a full reset.
Te other is the full support of the top
executives and this is not just one or
two who really understand innova-
tion, but a clear majority led by the
CEO. Unfortunately, this does not
happen ofen.
So what can a corporate innovation
team in companies that do not have
a burning platform or a totally com-
mitted executive team do in order to
improve their innovation culture.
Here you get some suggestions:
Embrace a bottom-up approach:
You need to get commitment from
the top as well as the bottom (my
TBX model). If you lack the former,
then you can engage the employees
and try to create a snowball efect
in which more and more employees
(followed by managers and perhaps
even executives) get involved in in-
novation initiatives.
Here you need to look at initiatives
related to intrapreneurship, business
plan competitions and skunk works.
You might also enjoy these reads on
employees and innovation: When
Should Your Employees Be Innova-
tors and Intrapreneurs? and Te Ca-
reers of Innovation Leaders and In-
trapreneurs.
Understand the overall corporate
strategy better:
We ofen hear that culture eats stra-
tegy for breakfast. However, this is
not the case in this situation and thus
we need to turn things around. One
approach could be for corporate in-
novations team to gain a very solid
understand of the overall corporate
strategy, then identify a number of
important corporate moves (near fu-
ture) and try to pull the current inno-
vation resources into this direction.
Tis could help bring more aware-
ness, recognition and perhaps even
respect to the innovation team just
for the eforts and in particular if this
results in some early wins. Over time
this can help change the culture for
the better.
Dont copy Google or Apple:
A corporate culture is almost carved
in stone during the early years of
the company and it takes disruptive
events or eforts to change it signif-
cantly. Tus, it is quite dangerous to
be inspired by things like Googles
20% project in which employees can
work on their own projects for 20%
of the time.
Tis worked at Google in the early
years (not even sure it works any-
more at Google), but it will be very
difcult to implement this concept
in a culture that is not used to this.
Te mindset and processes needed to
support this are simply not in place.
Lots of people also bring up Apple
and their ability to bring game-chan-
ging innovation to market as a sour-
ce of inspiration. However, Apple is
a very unique company that is hard
to copy and this has a lot to do with
Steve Jobs. Furthermore, it is also dif-
fcult to get a good understanding on
how Apple innovates, as they dont
share much about their eforts and
initiatives.
Focus on a single business unit:
If you work in large multinational
company, you most likely have po-
ckets of the right innovation cultu-
re within the company. You could try
to identify these pockets and then try
to secure full commitment from the
leadership here and work together to
develop and launch strong initiatives.
If this works well, then you can bu-
ild further throughout the company
with similar initiatives.
Step up the communication eforts:
Every company already has some
good initiatives going on and a cor-
porate innovation team can use this
to start building the perception that
the company already is innovative al-
though there is lots of room for im-
provement. You can check out this
article: Great Innovators are Great
Communicators
Educate upwards:
It is the responsibility for corpora-
te innovation teams to educate their
executives. Many teams miss out on
this or they do not really know how
to do this.
Te challenge is to fnd the ways that
for works in your given situation. You
might be lucky enough that your exe-
cutives want to learn and then you
can set-up a training program. If they
are not really that interested, then
you need to fgure out how to trigger
them. Tis ofen involves identifying
ways in which the executives can be-
neft personally from a stronger inno-
vation culture.
Leave for a better company:
Te last resort, which I expect will be
used by many as the economy kicks
into higher gear again is to get a new
job and try to make things happen
in a more receptive environment.
However, as this might sound lu-
ring, please have in mind that a huge
majority of companies deal with the
same kind of problems as those you
are trying to escape. You might end
up being disappointed.
Open Innovation Teams:
What Do Tey Look Like?
One of my corporate contacts recen-
tly asked if I could share some insi-
ghts on what corporate (open) inno-
vation teams or groups look like and
whether there are same similarities
across industries. Tis prompted me
to take a quick look and here I give
you short descriptions of some gro-
ups with a public presence.
Shell Game Changer: GameChan-
ger is a simple, fexible, and real-time
innovation process run by an auto-
nomous team at Shell that invests in
helping people develop their novel
ideas from genesis to proof of con-
cept. Ideas can and do come from
anyone, anywhere at any time in or
outside the company. Successful pro-
jects graduate to an R&D program, a
commercial license, or a new ventu-
re. Tis is the introduction to a great
read on Shell Game Changer click
the above link to read further.
P&G Connect + Develop: Tis is one
of the best known corporate innova-
tion teams and rightfully so as they
pioneered open innovation. Te C+D
initiative is the key piece of P&Gs
Global Business Development group
with about 80 people making this the
biggest open innovation team I know
of.
Weyerhauser: Linda Beltz, Director
for Technology Partnerships / Open
Innovation at Weyerhaeuser has sha-
red great insights on how to organize
for open innovation in her many pre-
sentations and talks. I fnd that a key
take away from her work is that you
need a hybrid / balanced approach.
General Mills Worldwide Innova-
tion Network (G-WIN): Tis team
has won awards for their eforts and
as you can read in this article, they
constantly iterate their approach for
facilitating innovation throughout
the company. You should also check
out this advice on starting an open
innovation program.
LEGO: It sounds strange given LE-
GOs many external touchpoints, but
they only started their team a year
ago. Tey are only two guys, but they
are seeing strong progress within the-
ir targeted value pools of internal em-
ployees, entrepreneurs, kids and adult
fans and companies / institutions.
AkzoNobel Networked Innovation
Program: Tis is a more informal
program based on about 15 people
across the diferent business units
and functions. Such a setup provides
more fexibility and if they can com-
bine this with direction and action, it
can become quite powerful.
Natura: Tis Brazilian company star-
ted their open innovation eforts 5
years ago and they are starting to get
their share of attention. You get an
idea of their setup at the end of the
article (above link). It seems as if they
have a small team of 5-7 people led
by Adriano Jorge. You can read about
their focus areas in his LinkedIn pro-
fle.
With regards to similarities among
these groups, I notice that with the
exception of P&G Connect+Develop,
the teams are fairly small having
2-15 people on board. Getting the ri-
ght people on board and in charge
is crucial as individuals really can
make or break such initiatives. Most
of the teams have also been in place
for at least 3-5 years indicating that
it takes time for such initiatives to
take root internally as well as exter-
nally.
Te reason for creating a networking
culture is obvious once you look at
the current and future direction of
innovation. Lets start by disposing
of the myth of the lone genius - the
Tomas Edisons and the Alexander
Graham Bells of yesteryear - arriving
at a breakthrough innovation on his/
her own.
Tis model wasnt true then, and even
if it were, it simply does not hold true
in todays complex business organiza-
tions. Technology and the challenges
that must be solved have become so
complex that many - perhaps even
most - companies can no longer rely
solely on their own internal innova-
tion geniuses, no matter how brilliant
those people may be.
Innovation is increasingly about ha-
ving groups of people come together
to leverage their diverse talents and
expertise to solve multifaceted chal-
lenges that cross multiple disciplines.
To make this happen within your or-
ganization - and beyond as you move
toward open innovation - requires a
networking culture that is designed,
supported, and modeled by your
companys leaders.
Another key motivation for setting
up networking initiatives is based on
the simple fact that the knowledge of
any company is inside the heads of
the employees. Discovering and di-
stributing this knowledge has always
Why Networking is Important for Innovation
Lack of time: Many of us simply do
not have the time to network and bu-
ild relationships. It is necessary to de-
velop a strategy and initiate projects,
but you also need to give your people
time to invest in initiating and ma-
intaining both internal and external
relationships.
Lack of skills: Some people are na-
tural-born networkers; many others
are not. But the basics of efective ne-
tworking can be learned, just like any
other business skill. With appropriate
instruction and motivation, wallfo-
wers can learn to work a room. By
providing your people with this type
of training, you will give them a skill
that will be invaluable throughout
their careers.
Lack of focus: A community or a
network will only work if it connects
people who share a common expe-
rience, passion, interest, afliation, or
goal. Your people need to have ways
to fnd and join groups that are right
for them and right for your compa-
ny. In other words, you and your em-
ployees should only network when
there is a good reason to do so. Ran-
dom networking rarely results in any-
thing but wasted time, which devalu-
es networking in peoples minds and
makes it harder to encourage them to
try it again.
Lack of commitment and structu-
re: Te networking-will-take-care-
of-itself-and-you-do-not-need-to-
work-at-it attitude is not the approach
to take toward building what is incre-
asingly a core innovation skill. Buil-
ding a networking culture requires
commitment and structure to sup-
port it.
Networking on the Personal Level
On a personal level, I can ofer three
key tips on how to help a newbie ne-
tworker master this important skill:
Only network if you have a purpose.
I strongly encourage you not to listen
to the people who say you should ne-
twork with everyone within sight so
as to not risk losing any opportuni-
ties. You are already busy, and time
is the most precious thing you have,
so do not spend time on activities
that do not serve a higher purpose.
Tis also goes for networking groups,
which can be very useful. However,
you should only join such a group if
you have a purpose. It is also just fne
to leave the group once that purpose
is fulflled.
Learn to turn on the switch
even if youre an introvert. Some
people believe only extroverts can
become good networkers. However,
psychologists classify introverts as
people who gain energy from being
alone. It does not matter how outgo-
ing or shy they may or may not be.
Tis is true in my case. I would ca-
tegorize myself as an introvert. I like
to be by myself. I have no problem at
all meeting other people, but I prefer
to be by myself or with my family. My
trick, and the trick introverts must
use, is that I can turn on the switch
been a challenge, and now, more than
ever, the ability to leverage a compa-
nys collective knowledge and expe-
rience is critical to innovation. Fur-
thermore, establishing the ability to
bring knowledge and potential new
innovation insights in from external
sources demands a strong networ-
king culture supported and modeled
from the top.
What a Networking Culture Looks
Like
So what does a good networking cul-
ture looks like? Its such a new con-
cept that there arent a lot of examples
available to illustrate it, but here are
some key components of a good ne-
tworking culture:
Top executives have outlined cle-
ar strategic reasons why employees
need to develop and nurture internal
and external relationships. Tis inclu-
des making clear how your company-
s networking culture links with and
supports your innovation strategy.
Among the things to consider is
what types of networks you hope to
build to support your innovation ef-
forts. If your organization is moving
toward open innovation, possibilities
would include peer-to-peer networks
for people working with open inno-
vation in diferent companies, value-
and supply-chain networks, feeder
networks, and events and forums
connecting problem solvers and in-
novators with your company.
Leaders must walk the walk, not
just talk the talk. By making them-
selves available at networking events
and by being visible users of virtual
networking tools, they model the de-
sired behavior and motivate others
to participate. Afer all, who doesnt
want a chance to exchange ideas with
the top brass?
Networking initiatives mesh closely
with your corporate culture. Tis is
not one-size-fts-all; each company-
s networking eforts will difer. You
can take bits and pieces, concepts and
theories, knowledge and experien-
ce from others, but you still need to
make it work for your own company.
People are given the time and me-
ans to network. Frequent opportu-
nities are provided to help individu-
als polish their personal networking
skills. Not everyone is a natural ne-
tworker. But almost everyone can be-
come good at it with proper training
and encouragement.
Today, networking not only hap-
pens in the real world. You also need
to make this happen in the virtual
world using a range of social media
tools and services.
Potential Roadblocks
In working with companies that are
trying to build a networking culture,
here are some reasons Ive identifed
for why such eforts can fail or not re-
ach the hoped-for degree of success:
and go into a networking mode.
I have learned networking techniqu-
es, and I believe that having had to
work harder than natural extroverts
made me a better networker.
You can become a better networker
by investing in a better understan-
ding of how networking works and
how you can use networks to meet
your goals. Let me share a few tips
on how to turn on the switch before
you go to an event or a conference:
Do your research before you go to
an event. Know who you want to meet
and be prepared.
Everyone seeks upward connections
when theyre networking. If people you
want to connect with see you as in-
ferior, they will think you are wasting
their time. And networking time is
ofen very limited. However, most pe-
ople are polite and will give you one
minute. So have your pitch ready and
be prepared to make the most of your
brief opportunity. If you are prepared,
things will go much easier even for in-
troverts.
Do the necessary follow-up work as
soon as possible.
Leverage the power of six degrees
of separation to reach anyone in the
world. Tis refers to the idea that if
a person is one step away from each
person they know and two steps away
from each person who is known by
one of the people they know, then
everyone is an average of six steps
away from each person on Earth.
Tink of someone who could really
infuence your career and see how
many steps it would take you to con-
nect with that person. Youll ofen be
surprised that you dont even need
six steps; it can ofen be done in just
three or four connections.
Heres how this works in terms of ne-
tworks. Networks clump people toge-
ther with other people who share the
same values or have a common area
of expertise. Te larger group usual-
ly only has a few people connecting
outside this group; these people are
the brokers or bridge builders who
connect groups with groups. Te role
of brokers explains how six degrees of
separation works. If you connect with
a bridge builder, that person will then
connect you with another bridge bu-
ilder, and so on and so on until you
reach the person you want to reach.
You can become very valuable by be-
coming a broker yourself. Also, con-
necting others creates friction, which
creates new ways of thinking and
prosperity, so for innovation leaders
and intrapreneurs, being a broker can
be particularly valuable and exciting.
Layout and Prepress:
w w w . f a s s d e s i g n . n o
58/Innovation Excercises and Insights by @Lindegaard
Stefan Lindegaard
www.15inno.com
stefanlindegaard@me.com
@lindegaard

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