Innovation was not Art Fry sitting in church thinking about a better way to mark the place in his hymnal. It was innovation, however, when that great idea was later turned into Post-it™ Notes through the collaboration of thousands of people at 3M.

Innovation is one of the buzz words most often heard in business. It is also one of the most misunderstood. Innovation is not one person having a great idea … that’s creativity or invention. It’s also not just a bunch of folks generating lots of ideas … that may be creative, but it can also be a waste of time and energy if the ideas don’t go anywhere.

Innovation Defined

Innovation is a collaborative skill involving actively scouting the future, generating new ideas, choosing the best, rapidly and effectively implementing them, and then learning the lessons from successes and failures in order to begin again.

Innovation is a contact sport that requires a rich mixing and mingling of people, information, ideas and collaborative processes. Providing a place for this "mixing and mingling" can be an extraordinarily powerful way to jumpstart innovation. Collaboration rooms, innovation centers, creativity labs, whatever the preferred terminology, these centers can be relatively easy to set up yet have enormous payoff.

Collaboration rooms come in a wide variety of sizes, shapes and reasons for being. They can be expensive and elaborate or creative and cheap. With a large dollop of creativity, these spaces often cost less than normal work areas. Suzanne Merritt scrounged used furniture for Polaroid’s Creativity Lab and then enlisted her family and friends to help paint it bright colors for an energetic, playful atmosphere. Lucent Technologies’ IdeaVerse engages participants in painting ceiling tiles and posters as part of the decorations for their creative meeting space.

When Gordon MacKenzie set up a specialized creative design group for Hallmark, he scoured antique shops for rolltop desks, used stained glass windows and doors as space dividers and milk cans as wastebaskets. Although trying to get milk cans through Hallmark’s purchasing department required some creative accounting, the total per-person expenditure for an area that "fostered the free-spirited individuality of the staff and promoted the mission of the department," was $700 less than the standard assembly-line cubicle set-up.

It’s All About Projects and Collaboration

In today’s work world, projects have become a way of life and the foundation of innovation. The ability to effectively complete projects is a critical skill, and since most projects involve more than one person, the ability to collaborate successfully is a fundamental key to success. There are several principles that we believe are critical to creative collaboration:

• Everyone has ideas – Creative collaboration flourishes when everyone understands that great ideas generally emerge from a democratic process of throwing all ideas (good and goofy) into a pot where they tumble and merge, collapsing and reforming into something often completely unexpected and new.
  
• Shared vision of a compelling challenge – Great collaboration starts with a shared vision of an exciting challenge that charges people with energy and enthusiasm. Abraham Lincoln once said if he had eight hours to chop down a tree, he’d spend six sharpening his ax. Wise advice but, too often, in the heat of getting today’s critical tasks done, we think we don’t have time for all this "vision" stuff. The problem there, especially in a collaborative effort, is that if the group doesn’t have a clear, shared vision of where they’re going, no amount of creativity and effective project management will get them "there," since they’re not sure where "there" is. On the other hand, if everyone has a clear vision, the project can tolerate a lot of inefficiency. Every action may not be exactly on target but all actions will be pointed in the right direction and moving basically toward the target in a self-correcting pattern.
  
• Rich flow of and easy access to information – Information is the life blood of creativity and collaboration. It’s impossible to tell just which piece of information will trigger an idea that leap frogs the competition, opens up a whole new technology, or turns on light bulbs in all the right places. Doling out information on a "need-to-know" basis, is death to innovation.
  
• Trust, respect and participation – Creative collaboration respects and honors the talents and contributions of each person involved, regardless of rank, seniority or expertise. It asks everyone to participate fully and to take risks such as asking "dumb" questions or suggesting "silly" ideas. Organizations that are serious about collaboration make sure there is a safe environment for taking the risks that are necessary for creative collaboration.

Interaction – Collaborative spaces invite interaction and movement, allowing people to move around, grouping and regrouping as ideas and energies shift. Small tables for 4-5 people are generally better than large conference tables.

Visual thinking – Ideas and thoughts gather power and energy when they can be seen and interacted with. No collaboration room is complete without generous whiteboard space, large sheets of paper, boxes of colored markers and a large supply of Post-it™ notes.

Beauty -- Beauty operates at a deep level, opening up the imagination and the heart. Lynn Frost, Vice President of Product Innovation with FranklinCovey (see inset box) states, "I believe in Goethe’s quote that every day you should read some poetry, see a beautiful picture, get into nature so that we don’t lose the sense of the beautiful that’s in all of us." You can make your space visually pleasing by using plants, water fountains, windows that let in natural light and beautiful scenes, colors, and a variety of textures.

Fun -- Play is an important part of creativity and collaboration. Fun breaks down barriers and frees us from the inhibitions that keep us "in the box." Bean bag chairs, toys, bright graphics, crayons and silly hats all help create an atmosphere of fun.

Abundance – An atmosphere of abundance sets up a mindset of generosity and sharing which promote collaboration and idea-generation. A feeling of abundance can be created by having large bowls of fruit, candy or snacks available (chocolate is always a winner), keeping a refrigerator well-stocked with bottled water and soft-drinks, making sure there’s always markers, writing pads and sticky notes available.

Tools -- The purpose of collaboration rooms is to work together more effectively. It’s very important to have the right tools immediately available in the room. This will vary for different organizations but generally includes a phone with a fast modem for connection to the Internet, a good computer system complete with mindmapping and project management software, a printer, an overhead projector and VCR.