Ensure the person who can ultimately approve funding for new initiatives is an active participant in the workshop. Their presence builds early buy-in and momentum, preventing promising ideas from being rejected later by a decision-maker who lacks context on their origin.
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When pitching new marketing initiatives, supplement ROI projections with research demonstrating a clear audience need for the content. Framing the project as a valuable service to the customer, rather than just another marketing tactic, is a more powerful way to gain internal support.
For large, potentially controversial projects, dedicate significant time upfront to meet every stakeholder group—from supporters to critics. By socializing the idea and framing its benefits for each party, you can build widespread support that preempts future opposition.
Innovation leaders struggle to secure resources. A powerful tactic is to have VPs align on their long-term strategic goals, identify overlaps, and then dedicate cross-functional teams to these shared priorities. This creates executive buy-in and carves out protected capacity for innovation.
Don't pitch big ideas by going straight to the CEO for a mandate; this alienates the teams who must execute. Instead, introduce ideas casually to find a small group of collaborative "yes, and" thinkers. Build momentum with this core coalition before presenting the developed concept more broadly.
To get buy-in from skeptical, business-focused stakeholders, avoid jargon about user needs. Instead, frame discovery as a method to protect the company's investment in the product team, ensuring you don't build things nobody uses and burn money. This aligns product work with financial prudence.
When presenting a strategy to leaders who like to 'leave their mark,' proactively design a space for their contribution. Instead of a sealed plan, explicitly ask for their opinion on a specific area. This satisfies their need to add value and makes them a co-owner of the strategy, increasing adoption.
When narrowing down ideas, replace generic dot-voting with prompts tied to strategic goals. Ask participants to vote based on criteria like "potential to generate X million in revenue" or "ability to increase customer retention." This ensures the winning ideas directly address core business objectives.
Middle managers often feel threatened by new ideas from their teams and become innovation blockers. A pragmatic solution shared by one executive is for frontline employees to bypass this layer and seek approval for experiments directly from senior leadership, who are often more receptive.
The work that makes an innovation workshop successful happens before it starts. Before the session, assign a clear owner for the outputs and create a rubric for evaluating ideas. This structure ensures that promising concepts are systematically advanced for investment, rather than dying on a whiteboard photo.
Instead of developing a strategy alone and presenting it as a finished product (the 'cave' method), foster co-creation in a disarming, collaborative environment (the 'campfire'). This makes the resulting document a mechanism for alignment, ensuring stakeholders feel ownership and are motivated to implement the plan.
