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>> Good morning everybody,
and as Tess said I'm Bev Godwin form the U.S. General
Services Administration.
And I'm delighted to moderate this panel.
And if my slides could be pulled up,
I wanna go over a little bit more about challenge.gov.
But we have a fabulous group of panelist
who are gonna help us go through how
to run an effective Challenge
through open innovation platforms.
And Robin covered the context of this is in the present strategy
for American Innovations so I'm not gonna go over that.
Also Karim Lakhani talked about why Challenges and Prices.
But I wanna focus on one bullet point here
from a government perspective
and that's the Attract New Entrance.
For those of you in the government,
you know our primary tools are contracts and grants
and we have lots of contract specialists
and grant specialists.
We don't yet have a lot of innovation specialists
and Challenge specialists.
But we tend to get stuck in the same grantees,
the same contractors, and the same people
around the room trying to figure out problems
and this really opens it up.
So I just wanted to emphasize that point.
I think Karim covered the other ones.
As Robin said, the Whitehouse came
to the General Services Administration
and said "Let's make the technology easy for agencies.
Could GSA put up a policy compliant tool
so that we do the procurement ones, we do the technology ones
and the policy lift ones?"
So, we, within 60 days worked with ChallengePost to start
up out of New York City
and launched challenge.gov on September 7th.
And it is policy compliant from security, privacy, accessibility
to people with disabilities, et cetera.
It's been enormously successful since September 7th.
There have been 59 challenges
from 28 agencies as of this morning.
And they range from everything
from a 15-million dollar prize purse.
The Department of Energy is a partner and to come
up with an energy efficient alternative
to the common light bulb.
Two challenges where the prize is not monetary
but recognition prizes.
In addition to the game changing prizes that NASA is doing,
they are doing one asking song writers to submit a song
and the winning one will be played to wake up the astronauts
on the final space shuttle mission.
That's a good price if you're a budding song writer
and wanna be discovered.
And there's many in between,
since September there have been a 140,000 unique visitors
to this site to challenge.gov.
It's open to the public.
They've come from every state, 5,400 cities
and a 170 countries viewed 648,000 pages.
We also set up a Twitter account at challenge.gov.
And it has 1,400 followers and the number followers are--
increases by about 15 percent a week.
So just from an agency perspective,
if you're a federal agency employee
for free you can use this to create a challenge.
It has a back end with a judging platform as well
as allows public voting,
it allows discussions, it allows moderation.
But you also can use it as Robin said to post a challenge
from any platform that you use, because the other use of it is
for the public as a portal site to find challenges
from across the federal government,
no matter what platform they are run on.
And the public can sort it by agency.
They can sort of buy topic or category.
They can sort it by the time left to enter the challenge
and they can sort it by prize amount and also popularity.
And by popularity it's some
of the social recognition features on Challenges.
It has an "I support this" button and it's sort
of like the like button Facebook.
And this is a popular challenge from FEMA,
Preparing Our Communities before a Disaster Strikes.
It's an ideation challenge, looking for ideas on how
to prepare communities.
And it has already 111 submissions.
There's been some discussions on the blog and you can see
on the right it has a 500-- 454 supporters.
And so these may be people who don't necessarily have an idea,
but they think it's a great idea
that the government is doing this
and that people are entering into the discussion.
So agencies can post challenges quickly, they can add--
they have the option to add blogs and discussions.
They can add analytics, they can choose to use public voting
or not for people's choice award as well as expert judging.
And there are social incentives as I said and they can feature
from any platform where the public can find it,
they can share it, there are social media functions in here
to share by Twitter or Facebook and e-mail.
There're RSS feeds and the API.
So we're very excited about that and hope that that's as one
of the many tools that agencies have to use to promote this.
The technology really has been the easy part.
And what's much harder is how do you define what
to do a challenge on within the mission of your organization
and how do you design it?
And so we have a fabulous group of panelists here.
I want to spend a little time introducing them so you know
who they are because you'll have many opportunities throughout
the day at lunch and this afternoon to network with them.
And then the format of the panel
as Jeff said is each person will do a very short ignite opening
and then I will do a Q&A interview format
and then open it all to you for questions.
And judging by the number of questions
for Pascal before there's going to be a lot of questions,
so starting with my immediate left Lisa Pannell
from General Mills.
And as an innovation entrepreneur
for the Yoplait Division of General Mills since 2009,
Dr. Lisa Pannell is responsible
for applying open innovation techniques to find solutions
to Yoplait's business and technology needs.
In this role Lisa searches for and works with both inside
and outside the company to bring in new technologies,
new ingredients, new products and new processes
that would benefit the company.
Lisa earned her Bachelor's Degree in Food Science
from Cornell and her Masters in PhD in Food Science
from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Lisa has one patent, has authored 2 papers
and one book chapter related to her research.
Craig Wynett at Proctor & Gamble is Vice President Chief
Innovation Officer responsible
for developing the creative capabilities necessary
to create, qualify, and launch game changing products
and services for P&G.
Craig's career at P&G spans more than 20 years
and under his leadership his team produced many
of P&G's most successful new products, superior products
as Pascal would say including Swiffer,
ThermaCare and Press'n Seal.
As well as initiating
and completing the IM's pet-- pet care acquisition.
In his bestselling book the Game Changer, P&G, CEO,
A.G. Lafley describes Craig's as quote,
"One of the most provocative, out of the box thinkers
about innovation I have ever met."
In addition to applying his creative talents
to the packaged goods industry at P&G, Craig was the co-author
of the You series of health books.
The first book You: The Owner's Manual debuted in May 2005
and became a number one New York Time's best seller.
And behind Harry Potter was a number 2 bestselling book
in 2005.
>> I think they got it.
[ Laughter]
>> Next we have Dr. Eugene Buff.
Eugene is a technology transfer
and innovation management professional
with over twenty years of scientific, consulting
and management experience.
Eugene joined yet2.com in 2004 where he identifies
and manages projects on both technology licensing
and technology acquisitions.
He's an account manager for several Government
and Fortune 100 accounts and responsible
for yet2.com partnerships
with technology transfer organizations in Easter Europe,
South America, Asia, Israel and the former Soviet Union.
Prior yet2.com, Eugene worked 15 years in academic research
and 6 years in technology transfer
and business consulting.
Steve Domeck is from--
is the Innovation Manager at InnoCentive.
And Steve is an innovation professional with 18 years
of technical product development, consulting,
and management experience.
Steve joined InnoCentive in 2009 with primary responsibilities
for delivering InnoCentive's challenge driven innovation
methodology with its major clients.
As an Innovation Manager for InnoCentive,
his role includes the facilitation of the cultural
and rapid innovation principles critical to company success
with an open innovation approach.
Jennifer Fogarty recently joined the NASA Space--
Life Sciences Directorate as innovation and development lead
where she applies portfolio mapping, open innovation
and collaboration tools to further research
and enhance clinical resources and technology development.
Jennifer joined NASA in 2004
as a cardiovascular discipline scientist with Wyle Laboratories
and supported the Human Adaptation
and Counter Measures division.
You already met Pascal Finette from Mozilla labs
and Jeff introduced him.
So let me turn it over starting with Lisa
and if I could get a handheld mic
when we go to the Q&A format.
So I can come out here and see the panelists.
Thanks. Lisa.
>> Hi, thank you for-- thank you for having me here today.
And I'll just start with a small introduction and a few thoughts
on where this discussion could go.
So, first I wanna make sure that you are familiar
with General Mills, is a food company,
the world's 6th largest food company.
And you may not know our company name as well as you know some
of our brands we're the general that makes the Cheerios
and the Yoplait and the Pillsbury and the Green Giant.
I am-- I am in a role at General Mills that allows me
to work a lot when this kind of challenges--
at General Mills we don't tend to do prize based challenges.
>> So I'll bring that perspective to the panel today.
We prefer to reward inventors with IP agreement
or sometimes some kind of collaboration
or partnership agreement.
We find that that's where our solutions tend to come.
And we have heard some feedback
that third party mediated challenges have poisoned the
well for some inventors because they don't hear back,
they put a lot of work into putting their proposal together
and only the winners here back.
So maybe we-- that might be a topic for discussion today.
Also one thing that we value not having the prize-based
challenges is we know that open innovation is a lot
about relationship building and the network building.
And so by having challenges that are open and lead
to collaboration you can develop relationships and we find
that that the second deal is a lot easier than the first.
And so that's another reason why we favor our approach.
And then I'll just-- there's a--
share with you a saying that we have in Yoplait which is,
it has been when I started there,
one of the smaller divisions in General Mills.
And we would say, you know, we should work with the spirit
of the small and the power of the big.
And I think that is really what sums up connected innovation.
It's a change in the way we work but it's not a change
to our core spirit or who we are.
And yet it connects you to the power of the big.
And I loved the term of the cloud of ideas
because that really is whole purpose of opening it up
and doing the 6 general collaborations it's connecting
to the world of smart people out there.
>> Craig.
>> Let's see.
I'm Craig Wynett.
You have a couple of PowerPoint slides for me somewhere?
Hello?
[ Pause ]
>> Aha! Those aren't mine but I can still talk 'em if you want.
[ Pause ]
>> Are they gonna find those here?
[ Inaudible Remark ]
>> Oh, okay good, okay.
So as Bev said, I'm effectually known back in Cincinnati
as the Thomas Edison of mops.
Not exactly something that you tell your mother
that you've managed to achieve.
But nevertheless over a 20-year career at P&G what I wanna talk
about briefly is, what I see typically happens in sessions
like this is that innovation gets talked
about at a fairly high conceptual level.
We're talking about rewards, we're talking about sort
of social networks, we're talking about technology
but what is rarely talked about is the how to do it part.
The fact is that and I'll tell you we're Gluttons
for Punishment is-- that's not it.
We're Gluttons for Punishment because what we've done is to--
in an evident spaced way try
to study the scientific nature of creativity itself.
So part of what I think normally happens is there you go.
Part of what normally happens in creativity is this.
So, imagine your trip home tomorrow.
Welcome to cruising altitude and we're lucky
to have captain Wynett at the controls today,
he's the most creative pilot we have.
[Laughter] And this is the problem.
We laugh. Why?
Because creativity is kind of--
got a lot of baggage to it, it's not normal.
It's not what we want.
There are a lot of sort of non-usual suspects
who are involved and part of the issue is that what it takes
to command resources and what it takes
to be creative are often viewed as not the same thing.
And so what I want to spend a few minutes talking
about is what is creativity?
Right? Sound familiar?
So this is what I-- I'm sure that you guys know how to do.
And this is sort of linear and makes sense
and rational and repeatable.
And this is what's thought to be the essence of creativity.
That somehow typically
when you're taking a shower it seems the big idea just sort
of flashes magically into your head.
And of course, this is sort of a typical output
of a brain storming session,
which I think is further evidence to say
that whatever this thing of creativity is its unpredictable.
Otherwise why would we guess at it?
Why would we guess at it?
But here's the question.
Is creativity alchemy or chemistry?
And so even though every innovator will quickly say
because this is the way it feels is the big idea popped
into my head, sort of immaculate conception for thinking.
And I don't wanna rule that out.
But, you know, you don't wanna company based
on that idea either.
So here's what we've learned.
What we've learned is that well I think it's always gonna have a
dose of alchemy.
There's a hell of a lot of chemistry that you can put
into the creative process.
And the chemistry means that it becomes predictable,
it becomes a process, it becomes scalable,
it becomes imminently productive.
And let me say that what all this I think boils
down to is the fact that the act
of creativity itself is probably the greatest form
of intelligence humans can posses, which is the capacity
to reason using analogy.
And so every one of these, and I could go on and on and on.
Every one of-- pick your favorite innovation is an
example in which the big idea may feel like it popped
in your head but it didn't.
All innovation, no matter how game changing,
no matter how seemingly revolutionary has
to be generative, it has to come out of existing knowledge.
Of course, one of the criteria for breakthrough is
that it's not obvious to people who were the experts
in the particular area
which makes this particularly difficult.
So what is analogy?
George de Mestral, the guy we can thank for inventing Velcro.
Did it pop into his head?
Yes. But what must've happened?
What's the only psychologically plausible explanation for this?
The explanation is that he unlike the millions
of other people who ran
into somewhere along their high cocklebur that stuck
to their pants and their socks and their dogs.
And then quickly pulled them off and went on their way.
What he must have done is to look not just superficially
and conventionally at that bur.
He must have then said
"What role is he playing in the world?"
He looked at it differently.
He looked at a deeper level of abstraction.
And I think what he saw was that the bur is strongly attached
but reversibly attached.
And I think his brain then said "You know,
that sounds familiar."
And it reminded him of a button, of a zipper, of a shoe lace.
And he said, you know, "These things are surprisingly similar,
this cocklebur and a button, who would've thought?"
And this is analogy, 2 things that are incredibly different
at a superficial level but very much the same
at a deeper conceptual level.
This is the same in all of these.
So the way we start our sessions is not
under the brain storming myth.
And the brain storming myth assumes
that whatever it is this esteemed group is gonna do today
is gonna be the first time in the history of the world
that it's ever happened.
Of course the good news is there's a good chance you'll get
a Nobel Prize if you're successful.
Of course, the bad news is we've been in business for 175 years
and we haven't gotten a Nobel Prize yet.
So I think this idea then of starting
with the basic assumption
that somebody somewhere has already solved your problem is
the way that I think all of this has to begin.
Because again, if the solution doesn't exist,
I think you're gonna have to invent some
or discover some net new log nature of which the only way
to go is trial and error.
So let me summarize with this.
Rather than alchemy, I think that the core of the act
of creativity itself is this first ability to realize
that unlike the pilot, creativity really is normal.
It's a normal way of thinking.
We all can do it, we've proved it.
Second, that what you have to be able to do is
to see beyond the superficial parts, the conventional parts
of your world and that's tough because all of that works.
It works incredibly well.
James Dyson, I should say Sir James Dyson the billionaire,
you know, who invented the cyclonic vacuum.
Did he invent cyclones
and [inaudible] force, obviously not.
What he did is he saw that as analogous to the role
of physical filter plate in a vacuum.
Again, another version of the same story,
to be able to see below the surface,
to find similarity despite differences,
to be able to generalize from experience, to be able to say
"this is what specifically happened" but then quickly say
"this is what generically happened."
At NASA you talk about project portfolios which everyone has.
What we think about is problem portfolios.
>> What handful of generic problems are we facing
if we just take a look at the cross cut all
of our divisions, all of our sectors?
And then the givens I've talked about those, the givens.
And at some point I'd love to talk about some of the givens
around compensation pay for performance,
which turns out itself to be a myth, right.
Think of the very idea compensation.
What it means is your gonna get paid for doing something
that apparently you wouldn't do anyway--
you wouldn't do otherwise and therefore you need
to be compensated for it.
Innovation is I think at Harvard Business School, a friend said,
is driven mostly by intrinsic motives, love of the work,
I do it anyway, I do it for free.
And I'll end with this.
Anybody ever watch the Dog Whisperer?
You know the Dog Whisperer, if a dog is reacting badly,
what's his name, Cesar, says, "Sshh, sshh."
So I was with a local version the Dog Whisperer
in Cincinnati a few months ago and we had a new puppy
and he saw me pulling a slipper of mine that he had dragged
into the-- from my bedroom.
And I started yanking on it.
He sshh-- he sshed me.
You know, stop, what are you doing?
Well I said "Well is that not what you do
when the dog has grabbed your slipper?"
He said "No, here's what I would do.
The exact opposite.
Jam it in his mouth and he'll never take it again."
So the message is this that while we're always busy sort
or yanking and doing what's conventional
and normal and obvious.
You're not gonna get anywhere unless you put a pause
in the way that you're thinking.
To be open to the other possibilities
which in most cases and this seems to have--
to be common in most breakthroughs is the exact
opposite of what you're normally doing, works even better.
Thanks.