There are new innovation initiatives
that have been launched across America and internationally over the
past few years. Each has a vertical or horizontal focus to attract a
particular set of entrepreneurs, coders, researchers and founders or
data scientists.
You may have seen the accelerators, the incubators, training boot camps or even the H4D class being offered in your particular U.S. city or university lately. Behind these initiatives are leaders, executives and fellow startup founders/practitioners who have developed a combination of methodologies and strategies, to produce new products and problem-solving business platforms.
After several years of practicing and mentoring in this category and recently devoting 30+ hours of first hand observation, there are several insights that were discovered.
First off, the quality and experience of instructors, mentors and the support ecosystem is vital. You must create a robust program to recruit, train and continuously facilitate the actual people who surround the accelerator, incubator or university class and are devoting their time and resources to volunteer.
The ecosystem itself requires tested and proven processes, business rules and significant buy-in by all contributors. The volunteers need a set of program prerequisites, a framework and the coaching along the way, to make their experience just as valuable as the participants in the innovation entities program. Many of the mature innovation programs do this already.
Second, the founders, subject matter experts, linchpins, content providers or problem-set sponsors should have their own meetings and live interactions before and after each iteration of the participants program. As an example, if the incubator has a cohort that is in-residence over the course of 10 weeks, on Tuesday's from 4:30-7:30PM, then the volunteers should meet for 30 minutes before and 30 minutes afterwards.
Why?
During those 3 hours there are plenty of live interactions, new learning, comments and ideas generated with the actual program participants. It is just as valuable for the volunteers to share and interact after each iteration or cohort meeting to prepare and to debrief. Certainly some of the follow-up learning could be captured using Slack or other online tools, yet having those linchpins face-to-face and interacting live is ever so valuable.
So What?
The maturity of the systems and processes associated with the innovation initiative, will be a key factor in the long term success and longevity of a particular program. Yet even a set of solid systems can be influenced and characterized simply by the combination and quality of people, who are interacting and supporting these systems. The parallel effort and devotion of one-to-one development, training and post program-metrics of these instructors, mentors, problem-sponsors and facilities or resources donors is paramount.
You may have seen the accelerators, the incubators, training boot camps or even the H4D class being offered in your particular U.S. city or university lately. Behind these initiatives are leaders, executives and fellow startup founders/practitioners who have developed a combination of methodologies and strategies, to produce new products and problem-solving business platforms.
After several years of practicing and mentoring in this category and recently devoting 30+ hours of first hand observation, there are several insights that were discovered.
First off, the quality and experience of instructors, mentors and the support ecosystem is vital. You must create a robust program to recruit, train and continuously facilitate the actual people who surround the accelerator, incubator or university class and are devoting their time and resources to volunteer.
The ecosystem itself requires tested and proven processes, business rules and significant buy-in by all contributors. The volunteers need a set of program prerequisites, a framework and the coaching along the way, to make their experience just as valuable as the participants in the innovation entities program. Many of the mature innovation programs do this already.
Second, the founders, subject matter experts, linchpins, content providers or problem-set sponsors should have their own meetings and live interactions before and after each iteration of the participants program. As an example, if the incubator has a cohort that is in-residence over the course of 10 weeks, on Tuesday's from 4:30-7:30PM, then the volunteers should meet for 30 minutes before and 30 minutes afterwards.
Why?
During those 3 hours there are plenty of live interactions, new learning, comments and ideas generated with the actual program participants. It is just as valuable for the volunteers to share and interact after each iteration or cohort meeting to prepare and to debrief. Certainly some of the follow-up learning could be captured using Slack or other online tools, yet having those linchpins face-to-face and interacting live is ever so valuable.
So What?
The maturity of the systems and processes associated with the innovation initiative, will be a key factor in the long term success and longevity of a particular program. Yet even a set of solid systems can be influenced and characterized simply by the combination and quality of people, who are interacting and supporting these systems. The parallel effort and devotion of one-to-one development, training and post program-metrics of these instructors, mentors, problem-sponsors and facilities or resources donors is paramount.
If you are an innovation engine producing new entrepreneurs and business startups that utilizes an ecosystem of volunteers, your future success will be directly linked to these vital linchpins...
