Drive Momentum to Grow Your Vision

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

• List marketing tactics for helping your vision go viral.
• Articulate one key piece of advice about inspiring a movement to grow your vision.
• Describe two styles of innovation movement leaders.

Wow—you did it! Your initiative and vision is becoming a reality. What a phenomenal achievement. As any entrepreneur would tell you, coming up with an idea and even securing funding means that you’ve only just begun. Now begins the exciting journey of execution. (We haven’t written that trail yet!)

But just so we don’t leave you hanging, we’ll share a few suggestions on important activities during your first 60–90 days after getting approval for your project. It all comes down to inspiring a movement inside your organization.

Up until now, it’s likely that only a small community of people outside the members of your innovation team are aware of your project and its goals. Just as you phased the development of the product, we recommend that you phase your project announcements. Focus on those individuals who’ll be involved with building and developing it. Add to this group the people who will become instant evangelists because they share your vision.

What’s the most effective way to share the story of your innovation journey? Here are few ideas.

• Teaser video—Captivate your audience with a short (less than 2 minutes) and memorable reel. Try to make it from your customers’ voice to emphasize that you’ve prioritized their needs. Don’t allow people to get caught up in the details. The goal of the video is to build excitement.
• Infographic posters—Highlight the proposed metrics and business value in a visual and eye-catching way. You’ve done a great job if you see that people hang it up in conference rooms or at their desk. See our resources section for infographic inspiration.
• Create your short, engaging talk—Start giving your talk at lunch-and-learns. As you onboard evangelists, teach them to give the pitch and have them deliver it as well.

Whatever the format and forum, it’s important to start to socialize the vision in a sticky way.

If you’ve done a good job with your marketing work, soon many of your colleagues will take interest and show leadership around the initiative. When you find yourself in this situation, we have one piece of advice: Don’t be afraid to let go.

This project has been your baby for the past several months. It’s tempting—especially after you succeeded in securing investment—to want to keep it close, be the face of it in front of your peers, and enjoy accolades. But we advise you to let go. That doesn’t mean to shirk the remaining responsibilities. Instead, think of it as creating room for others to join the party.

Don’t perceive letting go as a threat. Rather, letting go is an opportunity. It means that you are willing to let others be co-creators and champions of the innovation. They put their fingers in the clay with you. Creating artifacts, venues, and conversations you never dreamed of. Your innovation becomes their platform.

Let your community drive the innovation forward in ways you never imagined. Innovation, like governing, has various forms of leadership. There are dictators who command and control innovation. And then there’s a vibrant, democratic grassroots innovation movement—by the people, for the people. The lesson here is that no one person owns brilliant innovation; rather, everyone does. And anyone who tries to own it, puts a harness and a leash on it, and it won’t grow as far as fast. Get out of your own way.

As we reach the end of our module—and our innovation trail—one thing is clear: No innovation is without adversity. There are always more challenges to define, insights to discover, possibilities to dare, experimentation to do, and opportunity to drive.

Experienced innovators understand that perfection doesn’t exist, yet we stand resolved, unfettered by, even compelled by, perpetual imperfection. The innovator’s glass is perpetually half full! We don’t suffer in minor setbacks or daunting challenges—we dive in and tackle them. In our challenges, we find hope, optimism, camaraderie, and we relish the opportunity to learn and grow together.

We are grateful to welcome you to our Innovation community.

Onward!

• Information Is Beautiful Awards
• TED Talks: Ideas worth sharing