Have You Misdiagnosed Your Innovation?

Just because you built a Web site doesn’t mean that your innovation is technological. The same would be true of footwear, sports or any other field. But this is a very common mistake. We look at an innovative product and assume that its core innovation is defined by it’s industry or market.

One example is facebook. It would be easy to say that facebook’s innovations are technological. However, as you listen to the recent 60 Minutes interview with Mark Zuckerberg, you begin to realize that the innovation that propelled facebook forward had more to do with sociology and connectedness than it did about code.

The same is true of Wikileaks. As a recent blog post from The Economist eloquently describes, the innovation in Wikileaks has nothing to do with technology. Instead the innovation is in how Julian Assange, founder of the site, strategically networked together servers within countries that have strong whistleblower laws and protections. Essentially, he has found a way to harness the globe’s legal protections in his fight to uncover secrets.

I have been fascinated with facebook and Wikileaks (see my recent post about Wikileaks and generosity) because these represent movements that have polarized people so dramatically but have not lost their ability to shape our relationships and our view of government and power. But as we get caught up in these dramatic stories of innovation, we tend to misdiagnose the innovative foundation. This can lead to a limited understanding of the innovation and how we can leverage it.

But more practically, it is possible that you have misdiagnosed your innovation! You may think that it is innovative for one reason, when really there is a deeper creative idea that is at play. Don’t settle for your assumptions. Dig deep into your idea and make sure that you understand your innovation and why it is unique.

You Don't Get Authenticity By Association

I recently wrote a guest blog post for David Sheets. My post is about how you can't be authentic by association. That means that just because you spend time in a community, it doesn't mean you are an authentic part of that group. I specifically speak about this in relationship to engaging people with new ideas. Read on . . .

David runs Outlaw Sales Group and describes his work this way:

Outlaw Sales Group LLC (OSG) was formed to drive start-up ventures and established companies to excel in sales and business development. From consulting on sales plans, to helping set-up sales organizations, OSG brings experience and passion to each client relationship.

Innovation in Organizing Relationships

One of the most important resources an innovator has are his/her relationships. Think about it. Where do you get your inspiration, go to ask for help in brainstorming, go for money to fund your idea, etc. Your relationships are the fabric that allow you to innovate.

But what happens in a world where relationships are exploding through social media. Now if you are a well connected person you might have up to 1000 friends on facebook and your twitter feed might have several thousand followers. But do you know any of these people? How do you organize these relationships to be effective in your ministry innovation?

I recently posted a cartoon about social networks and relationships on facebook and began a great discussion about this topic with a fellow innovator. As we talked, he shared a system he has come up with to manage relationships and make them effective in this sea of information.


Listen to him in his own words:
"I think there is a difference between "friends," "acquaintances," and "followers." I usually think of things in terms of Dunbar's number: I have my best 15 relationships, my close 50, my near 75, and my "tribal" 150. Anything beyond that is "distant horizon associates": people who follow me or whom I follow because we share common ideas, visions . . ."


The great thing about this system is that it allows you to prioritize the sea of information and connections out there and proactively stay connected to those people that you really believe are key in your life and spiritual growth. At the same time it gives you a way not to avoid the larger group - but to keep the mass of information in context.

I love what he says about the flow of information:
"The great thing is that I don't try to keep up with every Facebook/Twitter/Friendfeed post. I view them as a river or a stream that I dip into at various times."


One of the things I appreciated about his approach is that it is not static. He focuses on those relationships that are closest, but as he reads, interacts and grows personally, his system allows people to change their connection to him - closer or further away.
"The closer someone is to me, the more often I will probably be in touch with them.... my close 15 I'm probably in touch with at least once every other week if not weekly... so I'll find out what's going on in their lives from FB posts, emails, phone calls etc. typically daily or weekly. I have different levels of involvement with each of the levels (15-50-75-150-followers). I don't attempt to deepen connections with followers unless they "move" into one of the other levels..."


But you may be asking, how can you manage this in a practical way? Here is his approach:
"I have rules set up in my gmail account to automatically tag all messages from certain people according to which category they are in "best15," "close50", "near75," "tribe150" and slot them in. Then I have multiple inbox views in Gmail that let me see newest emails, as well as newest emails from best15 ... Read Moreand close50. I always respond to best15 and close50 first and then deal with everything else. And I make it a point to check in with best15 at least once a week or once every other week, just to see what they're doing, if I haven't talked to them before."


Innovation requires a proactive approach to relationships and ideas. How will you organize your relationships for greater Kingdom Impact?

A Crossroads of Crisis and Opportunity

As ministries, we have come to a crossroads of crisis and opportunity. The economy and the culture have changed the rules and we have the great privilege of asking God how He would have us respond. What we do at this crossroad will dictate our future and our very survival in many cases. Our instinct as conservative, low-risk organizations will be to pull back, cut our losses and hunker down.

I believe that it would be a mistake to fall into that frame of mind. I believe that the only ones that will survive this troubled time will be those that:
1. Know what they are best at
2. Are engaging their advocates/recipients in transformational ways
3. Have a vision for what the world will look like when we rebound from the crisis

If we can engage our advocates and recipients with what we are best at with a vision for our place in a world recovering from crisis, then we can use that momentum to create action plans.

As I have been processing this, I went to Fast Company’s “Fast 50”. This is an interactive list of the 50 most innovative companies. I studied the top 20 of these companies, here is what I learned:

• The most innovative organizations are, at their highest levels, defined by innovation in technology – whether they sell shoes (Zappos), megawatts of electricity (NextEra Energy) or computers (HP).
  
• The reality that products and services require mobility oriented around the consumer drive these companies. (i.e. Pure Digital Technologies’ Flip Camera)
  
• Social responsibility is evident throughout these organizations and it manifests itself in authentic ways based on what these organizations care about. (i.e. Gilead Sciences’ Access program to provide key drugs to poor countries)
  
• These companies have perfected the art of knowing the needs of their customer/audience and meeting it in creative, practical, stylish ways. (i.e. Ideo’s pursuit of a “human centered methodology”)
  
• At their core, the most innovative organizations have a “participatory DNA”. This means that they have created their organizations so that innovation will bubble up. Staff and customers will be a part of their process/products, and decisions are made dynamically and in a distributed way. (i.e. Team Obama, Google, Facebook, Cisco Systems and Hulu)

Challenging Implications for Ministries:

• Technology: In the early days missions were extremely technology driven as they used every tool to overcome huge obstacles. But we have given this distinctive up and now most of our core processes/services/products are not driven by innovative technology.
  
• Mobility: We have fared better with mobility. Because our work and the geopolitical situations are always changing we have become effective at making our solutions mobile. With more technology we could be even more mobile.
  
• Green (Social Responsibility): Because we have a Kingdom focus that has traditionally centered on Eternal things rather than bettering life in this world, we are very weak here. That in itself is not bad because we have set our sites on bringing people into God's Kingdom. However, in order to speak to the coming “green” generation we must put our Kingdom work into language understood by a generation of people that will be redefined by social/environmental responsibility.
  
• Consumer Focus: This item is the greatest single threat to the survival of many ministries. At the core of our Christian beliefs is that we should be God-centered and focused on a life of service and sacrifice. In an increasingly post-Christian / self-centered world, we will find ourselves increasingly at odds with what the marketing, fundraising, promotions experts tell us to do. We will be forced to make very difficult choices between transactional success and transformational focus. What I mean by this is that the realities of an overcrowded nonprofit marketplace will force us to either try and compete for consumers by appealing to their needs (whether we agree with them or not) or we will try to engage consumers and help to raise their sites beyond themselves and to the needs of others based on our beliefs and convictions.
  
• Participatory DNA: Currently many ministries do not have a participatory DNA as organizations. Because of hierarchical structures, low tolerance for ambiguity, and a “limited good” mentality internally, we are not able to give our staff, donors, partners or ministry recipients the ability to participate significantly in who we are and what we will become.

These are very quick commentaries on issues that have many facets, reasons and potential solutions. The purpose of this blog posting is not to lay them out in the greatest detail or to provide extensive ideas on how to fix them. My main purpose is to show some of the key factors that are helping secular organizations lead the way in innovation and then contrast them with the realities we face in Christian nonprofits. Our survival depends on us looking at reality and then asking God how He might allow us to make a difference.

Innovation in Short Term Missions

A lot has been written about Short Term Missions for sure. We have heard the good and the bad. Whatever your experience has been, the movement has impacted global missions in a significant way. Lately it has all seemed to be the same old . . . but a member of our facebook group connected me to a new innovation in short term missions.

The site is called www.onlinemissionstrip.com. Their tag line is "Sharing Christ through social media." Here is the amazing thing about this site. They are organizing a global mission trip where youth groups can sign up to do missions on facebook and other social media.

The experience is completely virtual but has all the components of a typical trip. You get training through January 31. Then the trip goes from February 1-14. After that the group is organizing online follow-up events to disciple new believers.

They are signing up youth groups who are going to take this on as a project. One youth pastor named Brad Cooper wrote:

"God didn’t allow the internet to be created so the whole world could be addicted to pornography…

He has much bigger plans….

Im hoping we wont miss the opportunity He’s giving us!

Innovative… I think so…"

Usually the Internet evangelism efforts have been spread out and ongoing. The innovative elements of this are:

1. They are giving it a beginning and end to build it as an event.

2. They are signing up youth groups to do online evangelism together

3. They are offering training and follow-up materials to help people engage those they reach.

4. They are using all of the new tools strategically. They have YouTube videos, twitter feeds, facebook apps, and on it goes. So many times we try to use old school tools in new environments.

One of the most innovative pieces is the accountability. As I mentioned above, because it is being done in youth groups, there will be local/live interaction about the ministry effort. Instead of being isolated by technology, this group is using it to give youth groups a plan and an strategy for their outreach.

Take a look, what can missions learn from an effort like this?

Do you have an Innovation Sherpa?

New innovations are coming at us quickly these days. With each new one, a whole new set of rules and realities must be digested and understood. That can get overwhelming so easily. In many ways, taking advantage of a new innovation is like a serious mountian climb.

You wouldn't consider climbing Everest without a guide, so why do we try to understand and utilize these new innovations without one? So in the spirit of getting help, I would like to introduce you to the idea of the Innovation Sherpa!

Actually these people are all over. They are those people who love to be on the leading edge. They explore a new innovation thoroughly and then come back to the bottom of the mountain to help others enjoy it as well. These people are like gold if you are a busy person. They will help you find the right trail and identify how this innovation can help you in your ministry.

I would like to introduce you to someone like this today. Chris Forbes runs a facebook group called "Facebook for Pastors" (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=18403101472). He is also the founder of his own company - Ministry Marketing Coach.

I would encourage you to join the group and learn from him as he helps church staff to climb the mountain of this particular innovation. You can also download a free E-book on how to use facebook in church ministry: http://ministrymarketingcoach.com/free-e-books/.

We all need guides. The intracacy of life is very tricky and getting help makes all the difference. Learn to identify the key Innovation Sherpas in your life and follow them, or you might just get stuck on that mountain!

World's Most Innovative Companies

As we search for the innovations that will drive this century of mission work, we have to look everywhere. The next great missional idea might come from the most unlikely place - a business, a government program, a friend, a small group discussion.

So in the spirit of looking deep, you need to check out FastCompany's Fast 50. This is their list of the 50 most innovative companies. Just reading this list will give you many new ideas.

Enjoy!

Everyone else is writing about facebook so . . .

It only seems right if you are writing a blog on innovation to talk about facebook. It is an amazing tool that connects people in exciting new ways. But I want to focus on how we use it and what is truely innovative.

Sometimes people think that just by using the "cool new tools" they are being innovative. The issue with that is this - if you are simply using the features and tools designed by someone else the way they envisioned them being used, you are enjoying their innovation - not making your own.

But, you can be innovative with someone else's tool. You just have to come up with a new way to use it that solves a key problem/ministry need.

For instance, when we started using YouTube at HCJB Global, the first few videos were very much just getting a feel for the tool. We were enjoying their innovation and how it could help us to share what God is doing.

But then we decided to get more creative. Instead of only using YouTube as a channel for viewing, we made it into a virtual repository focused on feeding video to our missionaries' blogs. That was an innovation. All of a sudden, the purpose of the video was not so much that it was on YouTube as it was feeding dozens of other sites of people who had no way to get their hands on video content or to make it available to their donors/family/friends.

As you look into using facebook, myspace, YouTube and the like here are some good steps:
1. Set up an account and emerse yourself in the tool - figure it out.
2. Understand the community and the culture it has created.
3. Look at your goals and objectives in your ministry.
4. Try and use those tools in creative ways to meet those objectives.
5. Have fun with it - someone can really tell when you are doing it because you have to or because you don't want to be left behind.