By R. Sridhar
It was a workshop held by IDEO for the winners of an innovation award called Purpose - an award for social innovators over the age of 60.
The facilitator was closing the session and said “I have time for one last question.”
Several hands went up. One man had raised both his hands!
The facilitator selected him and answered his question.
When I heard the story I was amused and laughed heartily. However, when I narrated the story later in one of my workshops, I saw new meaning in it.
'Raising both hands' is not just about being smart or clever. As I see it, it is about the art creating a difference with the resources you have but seldom use.
I see 'Raising both hands' becoming a powerful idea for differentiation during these turbulent times. The trick is to look for resources within your command and use them smartly.
In workshops we often use a technique called 'Leveraging your tangible & intangible assets.' It is a very simple technique. You prepare a master list of all your assets including buildings, factories, brands, people, knowledge, expertise, competencies, networks, relationships, customer base, vendors etc.
The next step is to look at each item and ask yourself 'How can leverage this to make a difference?'.
Here is an example of what happened in a client workshop. They had listed distribution as one one of their assets. We did not get too many ideas on that. During the tea break the marketing director mentioned to me “Our distribution strength in Uttar Pradesh is unbeatable. No one can match it.” When we got back up, I wrote this on the chart and we generated several ideas. One idea I still remember is to use the railway stations for mass sampling of one of the products.
To 'Raise both hands' you do not have to have a 2-day offsite workshop. You can do that effectively through email or through your intranet site. Here is how you can do it.
First publish a list of tangible and intangible assets. Ask every one to contribute to the list. Once you have compiled your master list, post a challenge: “How can we create a difference in xyz?” Every one must generate ideas leveraging the current tangible/intangible list. Visit the master list every month and add to the strengths, if some thing is missing. Make this a habit. Every time you are looking for ideas ask “Have you looked at our assets?”
Incidentally the man who raised both his hands at the IDEO workshop is Mr. R. Umashankar, an NRI living in the US. He is one of 1,200 nominees for the Purpose, an award for social innovators over the age of 60. After several rounds of interviews, he was selected as a winner and received the prize and a cash award of $10,000. The ceremonies were held at the Stanford Graduate School of Business followed by the workshop at IDEO. He runs ASSET India Foundation, a non-profit organization founded by his daughter (Http://www.assetindiafoundation.org).
ASSET (Achieving Sustainable Social Equality through Technology) India Foundation helps train the children of sex workers and girls rescued from trafficking, in technology, so they can escape the sex slave industry in India. ASSET India has successfully established training centers within several major cities within India.
ASSET sought the development of a solar-powered wireless router through InnoCentive's network to enable them to reach small rural towns with limited electricity or available Internet access. GlobalGiving, a non-profit organization that connects donors with community based projects around the world, made the Rockefeller Foundation aware of ASSET India and worked with them to get the Challenge posted on InnoCentive.
InnoCentive, Inc., the global innovation marketplace, announced the winner of the Challenge posted by ASSET India Foundation seeking the design of a solarpowered wireless router. Zacary Brown of Texas was awarded $20,000 for his design by the Rockefeller Foundation, which sponsored this Challenge.*
The Challenge was posted to the InnoCentive's website for two months beginning November 28, 2008 and closed at the end of January 2009. Over 400 InnoCentive Solvers analyzed this Challenge, and 27 solutions were submitted.
* The Challenge sought the design of a solar-powered wireless router composed of low-cost, readily available hardware and software components. The router is to become part of a reliable Internet communications network connecting metropolises and remote towns in developing countries. ASSET India will own the Intellectual Property rights to the design.
* The Solver, Zacary Brown, is a software engineer who joined InnoCentive's Solver community in 2006 and has solved two Challenges to date.
* The solution runs on a Linux-based system and is powered totally by a battery that is charged through solar panels. It was built with hardware that is able to withstand daily outdoor use and can be controlled remotely, allowing network operators to activate the switches with pre-paid cell phones.
* This solution will allow teenagers in small centers outside the big cities to handle some of the work that is coming from technology companies in the cities and gain the skills to achieve greater career opportunities in the future.
* ASSET India works with children in India, ages 16 to 20, and provides educational training in English as well as computer literacy.
* The prototypes for the solar-powered wireless router will be built by engineering students at the University of Arizona this year as part of a year-long Senior Project for two undergraduate classes.
Certainly an inspiring story for innovators.
Lesson 1: Do not shy away from asking for help. (Innovation is not an I, me, mine game)
Lesson 2: Ask the right person for help, at the right time!
The author is a leading innovation coach and runs a consulting firm called Ideas-RS
