Idea management

"Most Knowledge Management work deals with the organization and structure of information, which, when done well, helps improve productivity and reduces rework and mistakes. A company's future, though, is determined by creativity and innovation, and harnessing the resourcefulness of people to create new knowledge."

[Source]

Recently idea management has seen attention and activity as a forward-looking component of KM. A focus on sharing ideas, gathering converts, embellishing, vetting and finding champions, monitoring progress, providing feedback and enabling escalation has helped to move companies from sharing existing expertise to fostering innovation.

Idea management software is but a small jump from well-established implementations for dealing with call center issues and resolving customer problems. Consider:

* A 'noticeboard' to inform the business of ideas received & in motion
* Assigning 'ownership' and establishing attributation
* Gathering interested parties who identify with the meme and wish to contribute to its realization
* Having a space for packaging the raw idea - brainstorming, dialog and publishing
* Finding or appointing a corporate champion to launch the idea, gain funding and steward the project
* Enabling automatic escalation so good ideas do not languish in some backwater or become mired in politics
* Providing periodic feedback to the progenitor(s), recording and acknowledgement of their IP
* Capturing context, rationale, connections (to other ideas) and ROI
* Providing a repository and a system for portfolio management, valuation and legal protect of the firms intellectual assets.

Here are some links to this emergent genre from the KmWiki

BTW please feel free to comment, hack and deposit your ideas.

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[IUM Solutions]

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Innovation Uncertainty Management is a revolutionary business process that answers the question "What is new idea innovation and how can I productively manage it?"
IUM Solutions is an association of academics and business professionals dedicated to providing idea management education solutions to all types of organizations.