Whelan, E., Parise, S., de Valk, J., & Aalbers, R. (2011). Creating Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation. MIT Sloan Management Review, 53(1), 37–44.
Companies that participate in open innovation, or using external technological knowledge in research and development, tend to perform better than those that rely solely on in-house knowledge. These companies don’t just find external information, they make sure that information reaches the people who can use it. To succeed at open innovation, companies should make sure their idea scouts have idea connectors. Idea scouts are good at finding external ideas, but may not have a robust internal network with which to share them. Idea connectors are connected to idea scouts, and have a robust internal network. Idea connectors can vet ideas from idea scouts to make sure they’re reliable, novel, and a fit for the organization, then can use their network to make sure the right people receive the ideas. Facilitating idea scout and connector relationships can help organizations be more innovative.
The field of communications, and especially social media, is constantly changing as technologies change. As a communications leader, empowering idea scouts and idea connectors can help my team identify new, potentially more effective ways to communicate. Social media teams should also be thought of as idea scouts, as they receive lots of information from external stakeholders. It’s important for social media directors to make sure their teams have idea connectors, so that information that could spark innovation is diffused effectively in the organization.
Learning Outcome 3: Address complex challenges by collaboratively leading teams across disciplines, distances, and sectors.
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