Effective idea selection is critical to systematic innovation

“The key is to pick the things that you think are really important and then focus on them like a laser.” –Jeff Bezos, Founder and Chairman of Amazon.com

Of all the ways to discover new ideas, the Walt Disney Company, during the Eisner years, had one of the most unconventional methods. Modeled after a 1970s TV show, Disney’s “Gong Show” was a huge hit with rank and file employees. Three times a year, Eisner and two of his top lieutenants would spend a day listening to everyone—secretaries, set designers, theme park employees—who wanted to pitch an idea. Up to 40 people were allowed to act out, present or imitate their idea until a loud gong signaled that time was up. Then, after all the ideas were aired, Eisner and his managers would discuss each one and come to a decision.

A bit unorthodox, yes, but it worked amazingly well. According to Peter Schneider, Disney’s president of functions at the time, most of Disney’s animated films originated from these sessions, as did the idea of ​​Disney retail stores. Most organizations don’t invite ideas with such flair. They also don’t give instant feedback or make quick yes or no decisions. “In most companies there is no obvious strategy for selecting or even evaluating ideas,” concludes the American Management Association’s survey of 1,356 global managers. Nearly half (48%) of respondents reported that their companies “do not have a standard policy for evaluating ideas.” The next most common response? Some 17% said they use an “independent review and evaluation process,” while 15% said “the ideas were reviewed by the manager of the unit where the idea was proposed.”

An effective recruiting process connects your “idea funnel” to your “idea pipeline.” Without it, this victory is haphazard, hierarchical, and daunting for aspiring innovators.

Advantages of a Robust Selection Process

When working with companies that are just beginning their innovation journey, I often hear managers say that they have “too many ideas, not too few.” How can you have too many good ideas? I will ask. Upon further discussion, what often becomes clear is that they have too many half-baked incremental ideas lying around that aren’t going anywhere quickly. “We never seem to kill an idea” is a comment I often hear. What this indicates is that there is no mechanism, no review board or committee, to filter, rank, reject, encourage, prioritize, and ultimately “green light” ideas. As Yogi Berra would say: “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll probably end up somewhere else.”

It takes 80 to 100 raw ideas to find one or two that are promising enough to pursue. So the task of the selection team is to identify one or two, but to do so without demoralizing those whose ideas are not accepted. The selection team serves not only as an evaluation body, but also as a teaching vehicle. At Disney, regular collaborators overcame shyness and fear of rejection to go up to the boss and sell their ideas. Why? Because they knew they would get a fair hearing, if brief, and at least some honest feedback about why their idea wasn’t selected. When employees see that their ideas will get a fair hearing, they start to think of more. At Google, Marissa Mayer and a core team of managers meet several times a week to listen to an endless stream of proposals for new ideas. Googlers have up to five minutes to propose the next GMail, Froogle, Search, or Google Earth. If they are shy, they can submit it through the idea management system on the company intranet. When it comes to selection, there is no one size fits all. Your method just needs to fit with your culture and create transparency for potential intra-coaches.

Establishing criteria is critical

Most companies never go so far as to explain in detail the type of ideas they are looking for, so their criteria are unclear. Without criteria, all ideas have equal value, leading to bottlenecks and battles over resource scarcity and inertia. “People never give up their favorite ideas in this company” is another comment I often hear.

Well-conceived criteria, on the other hand, can be used to make people think big, to stretch them. GE CEO Jeff Immelt requires each division to produce three breakthroughs per year: breakthrough ideas that will create entirely new business models or product lines with $100 million in gross revenue within three years. Selection criteria are best when they are simple and memorable; they are most valuable when they are widely understood throughout the organization. At WL Gore & Associates, the criteria have been reduced to three words: Real, Win, Worth. Is the opportunity real? Can we win with it in the market? Is it worth continuing?

At Bank of America, recruiting teams from each business unit evaluate ideas using a highly publicized scorecard. Using a simple score of zero to five, ideas are evaluated on dimensions such as: ease of implementation, associated impact, customer satisfaction, and of course revenue potential. At a technology company, the criteria were boiled down to five questions:

1. Does this idea fit into our innovation strategy? 2. Does it create new value for our customers? 3. Is there a demand for this innovation? 4. Will management support you? 5. Can you rate the solution?

Get the right people on the recruiting team

Unfortunately, recruiting teams often end up being made up of people who have little or no contact with customers and market needs, and little understanding of innovation. Establishing smart criteria is essential, but those who apply the criteria to real ideas must also realize the limits of the criteria, especially for radically innovative ideas. For example, if the criterion questions whether there is “demand for this new product/service”, it might be easy to say no. But groundbreaking innovations—the cell phone, the Post-it Note, the Internet—are always in demand. And customers don’t know what they want until they see it and use it. So while selection criteria are critical, so is having the right people on your selection/review team to make intuitive judgments.

The behavior of the selection team should not discourage the flow of new ideas, but rather should encourage more participation. Team members should be perceived as impartial, entrepreneurial (in touch with markets and customer needs), and adept at building ideas for themselves rather than simply judging. Screening meetings should be interactive sessions where the focus is as much on the questions and unknowns as on the answers, both on the level of passion and commitment and the level of experience of the person suggesting the idea. At a large global bank I worked with earlier this decade, we established Magnet Teams in each country where the bank operated to screen ideas and monitor compliance and risk management issues. At one point, we started hearing complaints that these teams were acting more like cops than coaches helping you follow the rules, but also wanting you to succeed.

Putting a vetting process in place won’t guarantee you’ll find innovative ideas, but it will cut down on idea stagnation and allow you, as Jeff Bezos says, to “pick things that are really important and then laser-focus on them.” It’s no wonder that idea screening is fast becoming an established best practice and essential for companies looking to embed innovation into their business.