The New York Times published on July 18 an article by Steve Lohr about how focused diverse thinking can become a competitive advantage for an organization. He is talking about "open innovation," which has been variously described as crowdsourcing, the wisdom of crowds, collective intelligence and peer production.
After analyzing recent research he concludes that "open-innovation models succeed only when carefully designed for a particular task and when the incentives are tailored to attract the most effective collaborators." He contends that "Open-innovation models are adopted to overcome the constraints of corporate hierarchies. But successful projects are typically hybrids of ideas flowing from a decentralized crowd and a hierarchy winnowing and making decisions."
It seems that opening the corporate doors to diverse ideas and inspiration from the collective crowd holds great potential. But for this to work, says Henry Chesbrough, executive director of the Center for Open Innovation at the University of California, Berkeley, a company must have a culture open to outside ideas and a system for vetting and acting on them to convert them into products and services.
You might not need help with a huge project, like I.B.M or Netflix, for which you might want to outsource and invite a crowd of outsiders to help. Nevertheless, utilizing the diversity of thought already present in your organization could be a brilliant way to gain competitive advantage. Think about problems or challenges your leadership team has been grappling with and try a brainstorming session to which you invite diverse people from all levels and walks of the organization. You could be surprised how someone in the fringes, like a janitor for example, can contribute an idea that could make a huge difference.
Some questions to think about:
- How diverse is your own thinking and that of your closest associates?
- What is a story you can share where having diversity in your team was an advantage for your business?
- What was a time when you were a "minority" and how did that feel?
- What can you do this week to make your organization more diversity friendly?
Don't let innovative thinking available go to waste. Tap the wisdom of the working "crowd" in your organization, design ways to capitalize on the ideas shared, and you will experience a synergy that will move your organization forward.
Photo by: Logos Noesis