getting other people to contribute

November 21st, 2008 by | Filed under Ideas, Problem Solving, Tools & Resources.

I recently downloaded a great little ebook from Nigel Collin’s website. It’s a collection of 21 articles from Colin’s Weekly Bits -The Early Years.

 

 listen to this article [1:07m]: Play Now | Play in Popup

 One of the first articles suggests setting up an Idea Board in a common space either at work, or at home. Then you write up a problem and invite others to contribute to the solution. I’m going to give this a try.

Colin makes the point, and I totally agree, that this is a great tool to foster creativity and  collaboration in an organisation. The phenomenon of blogging, the likes of twitter, other online networks, and commenting in general on the “net” have set the expectation that it’s quite ok to anonymously or publicly contribute. Of course it helps if you have something of value to say.

So perhaps the time is good for this very simple and low tech idea to produce some really creative outcomes.

Tags: collaboration, Ideas, Problem Solving, tools

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3 Responses to “getting other people to contribute”

1. Kirill Pojev | 30/11/08

   Hi!

   Entered your blog via Innovation Tools weblog. Thanks for many great ideas and articles.

   What comes to this particular post, this is what I’m trying to promote via my blog, but slightly in a different manner. You can basically use it to give this strategy a try. Please come in, if interested.

2. Jeff | 2/12/08

   I’ll take a listen to the podcast. I love the idea of lowtech tools. The net is great in how it allows us to contribute but sometimes in an office or at a planning session you just need to go as low tech as possible. I think the key when implementing devices like this is making sure that you have a culture of trust one that supports people being able to go up and contribute. I think there are a lot of offices you could hang something like this on the wall and it’d collect dust because no one feels like they can contribute even if they’re asked.

3. Suzi | 16/12/08

   I have found that an idea board can work brilliantly in various contexts with different groups of people providing a couple of things are done.

   a) Make it stand out in some way, and look used. ( I put up brightly coloured card, with a large headline, a doodled graphic that links to the topic I want ideas for and I write or get others to write initial comments on the card with different types of pen or add post-its and I put up several boards)This gets it past the automatic boundaries people seem to have re: what are the rules? and Am I first?

   b) Put them in high use throughways which are not in full view of lots of people. (lifts / elevators are good, corridors, toilets etc.)
   Yes there is a growth in commenting on line though even when you give your name you still retain some anomymity. So you need to translate this need into this low tech method and create practical solutions to:-
   maintain true privacy for individuals whilst opening up a way for them to contribute creative ideas, commentry or problem raising.

   The trust building that can then occur in your team is through letting people see that good ideas are used or incorporated, negative comments or problems are dealt with constructively (an opportunity to improve)and that the Idea Board contributors are recognised, validated and valued for their contributions as a group. Never try to track down an individual who has contributed - either in a positive or negative way; it destroys the anomymity required and reduces the trust required to make it work.

   Lastly success breeds success, after the first couple of rounds, if you have recognised, validated and valued the contributions - you should find that more people will start to contribute.

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