Hack:
MIX post M-prize: Ideas for MIX beta

By Erika Ilves - Co-Founder at Executive Office

October 10, 2010 at 11:33pm

Moonshots

Embed the ethos of community and citizenship

Summary

What will attract and keep management innovators in the MIX after the M-prize is awarded? How can we create a community that generates breakthroughs in management thinking and practice? One way could be to learn from Tongal and Top Coder and re-organize ourselves around responding to real-life challenges from specific companies and teaming up to produce real-life solutions.

Problem

The introduction of the M-prize has certainly been an effective way to get "MIX alpha" going. But what will happen to the MIX once the M-prize is awarded? Can the MIX function based on the notion of "reputational capital" alone? I am sure that the MIX Mavericks have a plan. The intention of this hack is simply to throw a few MIX inspired ideas in the mix.

Here are my observations about two features of MIX alpha that triggered these ideas:

Generalized management challenges

Today the moonshots are framed in abstract and generalized form. They are generalized aspirations grounded

in the collective real-life experience and understanding of organizational reality (mostly in the developed world). They are great because they condense the issues into succinct broadly-applicable definitions. They make it easy to fit and share ideas I have already implemented or am already developing for a specific purpose unrelated to the MIX. What they don't do is make me want to engage with the moonshots that don't already have something to do with my day-to-day professional pursuits. This is mostly because they are generalized aspirations, they don't have the color/smell/drama & suspense of reality, specific issues on the ground that a specific organization is struggling with. On a timeline. With no clear line of sight from engaging with a moonshot to making a real difference in an organization's life and potentially scaling the idea, it's hard to make a compelling case (to myself) for spending time on the MIX.

Lone-wolf format

The current format for posting hacks and storied works well for MIX alpha and has been improved significantly over the last few months. What it does not yet enable is real-life collaborations. It's great people can offer their suggestions in the comment section but ultimately there is only one profile owning the content of the hack or story. So the collaboration format becomes more of a "I will help you build yours (if you help me build mine)" rather than "let's build something together." I have met several people on the MIX with whom I share common interests but in all cases we have had to take our joint pursuits off the MIX because the format was not conducive to "let's create something together" collaboration.

Solution

What if we tried to re-organize ourselves more around the lines of Tongal or Top-Coder or OpenIDEO?

Bring real life managers from real-life companies posting real-life challenges.
Create a platform that allows different MIXers come together and collaborate while competing against other teams of MIXers.

Perhaps, this is obvious to the MIXteam and you guys have already considered this path - in which case it would be great if you can share what your current thinking is. If not, perhaps, the MIX community could use this hack to share their reactions, ideas, and we could fully develop this hack together. etc.

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October 11, 2010 at 9:46pm

Chary Chigurala

Erika, this is a great idea.

The real managers have real problems and lots of them. Generally, they do struggle to find innovative solutions tailored to their own company background. The more strategic the issue is the greater their difficulty. However, these managers are organisationally constrained to openly discuss the company issues in social networking forums as they may potentially compromise company IP and/or leak their competitive moves. Therefore, it should be handled carefully (anonymity is a possibility).

To make it happen, attracting the commitment from talented people is the key, who will only spend time if the problem is real, adequately challenging. This would need a lot of their time, therefore, reward must be handsome too. I would think company sponsorship is another prerequisite. This idea in my mind is something like 'online management consulting'. Worth pursuing.

Regards, Chary

October 11, 2010 at 11:29pm

Erika Ilves

Hi Chary - thank you for engaging on this!

Please also look at Dan's hack http://www.managementexchange.org/hack/mix-post-m-prize-how-build-trusting-online-community - Dan & Annie are sharing the "how" of the idea.

I certainly see the issues you raise as very real. Many of management issues are perceived as sensitive -- there is a good reason McKinsey has always had a very strict confidentiality policy. Although I must admit, in 2010 the quality and the depth of information you can get about the internal and external state of affairs in global companies is better than what we could get with direct internal access even 10 years ago. In any event, anonymity could certainly be one way to deal with it, although it would take away some of the real-life context and would make it more difficult to come up with ideas that are relevant.

Alternatively, we could carve out an "aspirational niche" for ourselves that may be perceived as less sensitive. Many of the moonshots are aspirational. In stead of focusing on the problems (and thus having to disclose potentially sensitive information), the owner of the challenge brief would be sharing a bit of context and challenging the MIX community to help him/her pursue a particular moonshot in the context of his/her organization. For example, it could be helping a specific organization conceive of a higher purpose or design new organizational practices to take work out of work. Then it would be our job to mix some of the ideas that have already been shared on the site and generate new ideas for a specific organization.

Attracting talented people is certainly key! Perhaps, handsome rewards is not the only way to do it. I think the notion of "reputational capital" that the MIXteam is trying to advance through TopMixer and MIXMentor tags has legs. But it could potentially run even farther if real-life companies had a say in it.

We could think of it as "big ideas consulting" or "the future of management" consulting rather than "management consulting," just to make sure we are clear that our focus is more aligned with the stated spirit of the hacks, i.e., "boundary-pushing proposals for changing the way organizations work and leaders lead."

I am curious - why did you decide to invest time in joining the MIX, posting your ideas on Innovation Bazaar, reading this and many other stories/hacks and commenting?

October 12, 2010 at 4:35pm

Chary Chigurala

Hi Erika - I am fond of new and innovative ideas and constantly searching for it. I guess the main reason for investing time in MIX is for "Reputational Capital".

October 11, 2010 at 11:18pm

Anna Stillwell

I like what you said about company sponsorship, Chary. Great idea. So first, we would need to see how much participation we could get from this community. Whether this idea had legs, interest and support. Clearly. We would need to get organized for this. And then, what if we found a company "sponsor" that was willing to give us a pilot problem (whether anonymous or public)? A pilot case.

The rewards, yes. We need to think that through. Any ideas? I am aware of the research Daniel Pink refers to (I have not seen the primary research myself) about how financial rewards, after a certain point, aren't the biggest carrot. What are your thoughts? Besides yourself, do you know of anyone on the MIX or elsewhere that could help us advance these ideas?

October 12, 2010 at 4:45pm

Chary Chigurala

Hi Annie - I agree financial rewards alone will not be good motivators after certain point. When I say rewards, I don't mean only financial rewards. My guess most participants on MIX made sufficient progress in their career and some of them surely look for doing something exciting, bold and new. I don't know anyone else on MIX. However, if you are willing to take these ideas forward, its worth discussing offline

October 13, 2010 at 11:45pm

Anna Stillwell

Well, Chary, consider us introduced. When you say that you don't just mean financial rewards, can you tell me more about what you mean about that? What else is included in rewards in your mind? And I think you might be saying that if we found a way to do something exciting and bold that it would be rewarding to people? I think it would too. I think real-life cases might just do that. What other ways could we be bold and exciting? Some other questions that were on my mind yesterday:

Is there a particular challenge we could study together? Do we need a MIX intelligence unit? A team of management archeologists to get on the ground in organizations and "do a dig" on the issues (according to the people in the organizations, not according to us)? How would that work? Which methods would we use? Why?

I'm in the middle of a project that is really pressing right now, but in the beginning of November I will have a tiny bit of space to think about this.

I don't know if you are up for it, but maybe you could think about these questions: How would the rewards work? Would they involve money? Would they involve recognition? Of individuals? Of teams? Should we organize into teams? Is there a way that we are just not yet seeing of turning the whole notion of rewards on its head. Some people say rewards. Some people say they are revolutionaries by saying no rewards (which is the other side of the reward coin). Can we change the entire notion of rewards? What would be rewarding? For whom? The more I think about it the more I realize that I need to better understand rewards. From multiple perspectives. Using many different methods. So much to do. So much to do. Let me know your thoughts.

October 14, 2010 at 5:32am

Chary Chigurala

Hello Annie, great to know you.

The aspect of reward goes back to the fundamental question of 'why people behave the way they do'. It probably depends on where they are in their life (or their perception). Some people want financial rewards, some recognition, some simply want to be intellectually stimulated, some want a sense of achievement, some crave for the feeling of helping others. Simply put it, to understand reward, one must really explore what drives the individual.

It is also wrong to assume that reward is always given by one person and taken by the other. There can be no givers, but all takers. Similarly all givers, no takers. Many variations exist. It can be perception of reward Vs real reward.

MIX Intelligence Unit (MIU) appeals to me. These days most companies are so busy with mundane stuff. In the pursuit of making quick money, many companies are 'intellectually incapacitated' (sorry to use strong words - but its true). If MIU can fill part of that gap, it would be wonderful. Take a specific problem for instance - why do MNCs don't make money in China (Google, eBay are classic examples). To answer this question, we need economic experts, cultural GURUs, business masters etc. To solve this problem, one can engage management consultants, which is quite expensive, who often provide text book answers. If MIU can provide a practical solution, quickly, based on the 'real life wisdom of MIU participants', I think many will be willing to consider. Something to think about.

Regards, Chary

October 21, 2010 at 12:55am

Anna Stillwell

Hello Chary,

I am sorry I did not respond sooner. Briefly, I like how you framed the MIX Intelligence Unit (MIU). That would be rewarding. An engaging idea. I think a lot would have to go into designing our objects and subjects of study, define it so as to not prematurely foreclose the solution space. What I mean is often many questions are framed in ways that really aren't questions anymore. Within the question already is the assumed answer.

December 28, 2010 at 5:07pm

Jeremy Clark

So color me very late to this party, but I hope with your help to advance some of these great ideas. I'm a long-time friend of MLab and have recently begun work advancing the community dialog on the MIX. In the short term this work is focusing on building contributions through the M-Prizes and Moonshots, but I'm looking forward to helping the community achieve more impact through collective action.

In 2011, we will be orchestrating a number of collaborative activities that bring Top Mixers, M-Prize winners, Mavericks, Mentors and a range of other voices together to make substantive progress on some of these challenges. We'll be looking to the MIX Community to shape these programs. Options include: an online "Jam" to get more detailed on solutions to one or more Moonshots, including commitments to run live experiments; a F2F conference to learn/share/invent; and of course further development of the MIX itself.

So thanks for the input, please keep it coming, and look out for some more concrete proposals early in the New Year.

Jeremy