#Innochat 16/06/2016 Summary And Recap

Yesterday, Ken Gordan and Toby Bottorf from Continuum were kind enough to facilitate the latest in an ongoing series of #innochat conversations - a twitter based one hour sprint aimed at bringing together thought leadersfrom across the innovation ecosystem with the goal of sharing knowledge and challenging assumptions.

Yesterday's topic was extremely relevant to PlayTank, and so we thought we'd share some of the details of what went down. The topic of the day was 'Innovation inside large organisations'.

Sometimes you find yourself the lone innovator in an organization. Maybe oftentimes. Truth is, an inflexible corporate culture can make innovation feel less like a creative activity and more like conducting foreign policy. Intrapreneurship can be challenging work, but there are ways to make your efforts more effective. Toby Bottorf, Continuum’s VP of Service and Experience Design, says there are ways to develop the innovation capability of a large organization and become an effective intrapreneur—and they begin by asking key questions about purpose. “Intrapreneurial work absolutely depends on a driving sense of purpose,” says Bottorf. “Because it is not measured by conventional metrics, and challenges structures and processes, it is uphill work and will not succeed without clearly articulated support from leadership.” For more background material on maintaining a sense of purpose while innovating in a large organization, read Carin Stimolo’s “Managing Stakeholders, Vanquishing Monsters.” “Trying to move ideas through large organizations can feel like a war of wills,” she writes. “It takes finesse, courage, and a whole lot of teamwork. Often, the process gets flooded by red tape, can send you in the totally wrong direction, or might even kill off a great concept. The process is just like the quests that demigods take on to save mankind. Well, maybe a little less dramatic.”

The session was focused on answering six main questions surrounding intrapreneurship and innovation inside large organizations:

Although the session only lasted an hour, the energy was high and there were some great insights to be gleaned from the conversations. A full transcript of the #innochat session is available below for those who missed out.

transcript_of_innochat_2016.06.16

Until next time

Toby!