In the first part of this innovation to reality series, you learned how to navigate the first two steps. Here, I’ll break down gathering insights and synthesizing your findings to help you build an ideal, thought-provoking environment for your team.
Identify a Facilitator
Once you know who you have on your team and understand why a project matters to your company, it’s time to choose a facilitator. This person’s job is to lead a journey of discovery where everyone puts as many potential solutions on the table as possible. The workshop leader is simultaneously responsible for keeping the team out of the weeds and identifying areas that might need further exploration or development.
Businesses are often tempted to select a facilitator from their own personnel. These insider workshop leaders can have outstanding skills that make them trustworthy. However, your company will likely see just as many if not more benefits if you find an independent person to lead your group. Because they can be more objective, independent workshop leaders are often able to create a safe environment where people can confidently express themselves and deal with opposing views, leading to a more engaging workshop.
Collect Insights Through a Workshop
Once you’ve found a facilitator who can lead your project, their first task is to review everything learned from the first step of the innovation-to-reality process. A little prework can go a long way in aligning participants, energizing the group, and opening minds to innovative and generative thinking. The workshop leader constructs a presentation that clarifies and reinforces the company’s goals (and why they matter) and then delivers that presentation to the group in the first half of an ideation workshop.
With everyone aligned, the facilitator can use the second half of the workshop to generate ideas and considerations. The key is to focus on itemizing concepts, not judging them. It’s beneficial to generate as many ideas as possible and assess feasibility and viability later. If a team member starts diving too deep into an idea’s operational aspects, consider using a “parking lot” staging area to document and recognize that the considerations have merit, but will be vetted later.
One method that can help stimulate discussion is using previously defined thought prompts. If your team is tasked with identifying ways to execute the company’s commitment to be carbon-neutral by 2025, your breakout thought prompt may address one of these questions:
How might we track and monitor our carbon footprint?Considering activities directly within the span of our employees’ control, how might we reduce our carbon footprint?
These pointed questions are intended to tease out ideas and prioritize where the group should direct their attention and resources. You can use a full range of design thinking and other project management tools to accomplish this task.
To address thought prompts and gather insights in a practical way, breakout groups are incredibly helpful. Try to stick to groups of 4-7 people. When you have more than that, groupthink can creep in and squelch creativity, and the stronger voices in the group begin to dominate.
Breakout groups should provide a mix of both independent and group work. Encourage the group members to take 10 minutes to fill out a template and write down five opinions or thoughts they have on a topic. Then transition to an hour of group discussion. Each group member can verbally discuss their best concepts or review sticky notes placed on a wall; this method gives equal voice to all contributions and creates a layer of anonymity.
Finally, have the breakout groups come back together for a session where you compile all the ideas from each group. Identify themes or cluster ideas that emerged across all the groups and ask everyone what they found insightful about them. Those themes point you to areas your company might want to focus on in terms of a broader strategy, such as supply chain management or ESG practices.
Synthesize Your Findings
Following the workshop, your team lead should take all the input you gathered and complete a critical thinking synthesis exercise. This independent work translates the findings from the group’s ideation efforts into 5 to 10 key insights. It is helpful to label each insight with a brief phrase that is easy to understand. For example, one insight that might come out of a brainstorming session on the carbon neutrality topic is: “We cannot improve what isn’t measured; we need to mature how we collect, calculate and report our carbon footprint.”
As you close the synthesis work, it is time to classify the kaleidoscope of ideas in ways that point toward feasibility or prioritization. One tool that can be valuable for this activity is a benefit/effort matrix. Plotting the ideas this way provides a simple visual that helps everyone see the work product of the group and provides a framework for prioritization — solutions that take little effort but have the potential for big rewards are generally good places to start.
Get Ready To Take Action
People must feel safe, encouraged, and valued before they’re willing to contribute unique thoughts and innovations. A well-facilitated workshop can provide an environment that offers this safety and encouragement, and there is a slew of tools you can use to help make these events productive and efficient. Once you’ve gathered your insights and summarized them properly, you’re ready for the fifth and sixth steps of the innovation-to-reality process — impact assessment and refining/adapting your plan. I’ll cover those in our final innovation to reality series installment.
