Structuring innovation initiatives - so you can scale what works

Bringing structure to innovation with Open Space

Hi Reader

Many innovation efforts follow a familiar pattern: they spark a movement, inspire experimentation - then suddenly multiple groups are exploring different approaches simultaneously.

I recently supported a friend with their internal Open Space unconference, which brought together diverse experimenters across the organisation, creating opportunities for connection and conversations.

As often happens in an innovation journey, they'd moved from stasis to overload, and now had lots of different things happening at once, in big and small ways. It's an excellent foundation! Many AI innovation efforts follow this pattern.

But as things start to pull in different directions, we risk splintering and duplicating efforts without learning from them. So we need a way to harvest the learning once it’s underway, without stifling the experimental spirit.
An Open Space unconference is an excellent format to do this.

So what is Open Space, and how does it help?

In essence, an Open Space unconference is an agreement to spend focused time delving into a key theme that matters to a group - without planning a specific agenda beforehand.

Instead, the agenda is set at the start, by the participants themselves. This ensures that each session is led by someone who cares about it - even if it’s something they don’t know well, but want to learn about from the group.

There are a few guidelines that ensure that people show up in curiosity and participate in the best way for them. If you're keen to know more, I'll be unpacking Open Space in more detail in my next post, so stay tuned for that.

Giving structure to the innovation initiative

During the course of the Open Space event, people host or attend sessions that are driven by the community, in the spirit of learning and sharing.
This surfaces a variety of initiatives in progress, what people are excited about, and what they're concerned about.

What we learn:

• What didn’t work (yet)​
  ​It’s really valuable to learn from the unsuccessful experiments - perhaps the tech didn’t work as expected, or the idea doesn’t actually address the need. These are course-correcting inputs that can either curb similar experiments, or adjust them to deliver something different.
• What is working, and where expertise is emerging
  Successful experiments can be assessed for their project potential.
  So can things that lots of people are trying out. Similar experiments may seem like duplication, but more often it’s variation that signals a depth of knowledge in the organisation.
• What’s missing
  The important areas have not been addressed and the concerns that are coming to light shape the next part of the journey, and will likely need addressing to turn working ideas into workable solutions.​
• Who your community is
  Seeing who is active and what kinds of initiatives are underway, makes an Open Space event a great foundation for building an active community that connects people around their interests, and across departmental boundaries.

Taking the learning forward

Once the event is done, you’re in a great place to move forward cohesively.

You can start to bring working initiatives into your innovation portfolio, encourage more focused experiments to flesh out others, and still keep the initial spirit of exploration going.

And now that the connections have been made, you can continue the learning beyond the unconference, build sharing sessions, and ultimately create a self-driven community.

If you’re interested in trying out Open Space for your organisation or community, get in touch!

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Free download: Printable Open Space Posters

I’ve created some high resolution A2 PDFs that are easy to print for an in-person Open Space event.
If you’re looking for simple posters that capture the essence of Open Space, you can get them here:

Get Open Space Posters

Wishing you success on your innovation journey,