When it comes to innovation and the nurturing of new ideas, I’m a firm believer in participation by a very diverse group of people within one’s organization.  You may not think that the lady in HR has anything insightful to add to a conversation about a totally new technology idea - but that is exactly why you should include her.

Something New or Different Introduced

Innovation by definition is “something new or different introduced”.  Why not do exactly that in your process of nurturing new ideas? Introduce someone totally new to the process.   Someone you would never imagine could have anything to add.

I venture to say you will be pleasantly surprised with the results.

Last week I took a half day, and went to MASSMoCA with my wife, along with two of my sisters and their fiances. I needed a break, and we had been wanting to spend time with my three sisters, who are now all engaged at the same time!

It was a great time, and I love just getting away for a while and surrounding myself with the creativity of others.

I mentioned this to a colleague of mine, and he shared with me a GREAT story that illustrates the importance of taking breaks from things:

A professor gets up in front of his class and holds up a jar full of beans. He asks his class how much the glass weighs. He gets all sorts of answers, 1 lb, 2 lbs, 5 lbs. Then the professor tells his class, “What if I tell you that the weight does not matter, but rather how long you have to lift it. If I kept holding this jar up for 5 more minutes, there will be some discomfort. If I do it for 1 hour, I’ll be in total agony. After 5 hours, you’d have to call an ambulance! So understand that stress is like this jar. You can lift some pretty heavy loads, but you HAVE to put it down every once in a while. Otherwise, you’re just asking to be put in the hospital.

So “put down the jar”, go to a museum, take a long nap, go for a walk.  Get Away. You’ll be glad you did.

I thought this was an excellent quote by Yihong Ding, found in this RWW post about the value of Community Managers:

“As we know, most of the Web 2.0 companies are built upon user generated content. Philosophically, User Generated Content is embodied human mind. This embodied mind is generally the fundamental asset for the company. Maintaining a proper community so that users may embody their mind with high quality is thus a central issue for the growth of the company. The duty of community managers is to supervise and maintain the high-quality production of the fundamental mind asset used by the company. Therefore, I would say that community manager is a critical job title for most of the Web 2.0 companies.”

This holds true for any company, not just Web 2.0 companies.

Every company today needs to recognize this.  While user generated content may be a core component of many Web 2.0 companies’ business models, the conversation and “content” provided by a company’s users/customers is of the utmost value to all businesses.

Therefore, ensuring that it is sought after, provoked, nurtured and communicated appropriately and applied correctly is of immense importance.

Still not satisfied?

• Jeremiah Owyang created a score card that you can use to help you determine your need for a community manager.

• Connie Bensen also lists some good questions that you can ask yourself, to gauge your readiness to take the plunge.

I’ll give you one question: Who in YOUR company is responsible for listening and engaging your community?

If you have to think about it, you’re in trouble.  It’s time.

Here’s a great exercise to help re-energize your team:

Tell every member of your team that you want each of them to forget about everything that they are currently working on, and take the time to come up with what THEY think they should be working on. What THEY think should be their highest priority.

In addition, ask them to look at what every other member of the team is currently working on, and come up with what THEY think each person’s highest priority item should be.

Then, have a meeting to discuss all of these things, brainstorm and re-align your priorities.