Idea Management Platform: Powering Communication to Achieve Innovation

For an innovation program to succeed, it’s imperative to build an internal communication plan. Strategic communication assists in building a culture, where the employees feel that they are a part of something massive and larger than themselves. They feel empowered to influence the direction of growth of the company and even get rewarded for it.

Thanks to Salesforce Experience Cloud for enabling organizations to create common grounds for their employees to share their opinions. It not only brings new ideas at one place but also keeps them motivated to present their ideas openly.

In this blog post, we will share the objectives of internal communications for an innovation process, discuss the various channels to achieve the same, and how it is facilitated effectively by an idea management platform on Salesforce-powered communities.

Internal Communication Goals for an Innovation Program

Creating an environment for healthy and productive communication is imperative. And that is possible when you have defined the communication goals for your innovation program. Here’s a quick glimpse into a few key objectives of internal communication for an innovation program:

• Create awareness about the innovation program in order to motivate the employees of the organization to show active participation.
• Drive engagement across the Salesforce-powered communities to get the maximum contribution from the ideators and act on the ones with maximum potential for business success.
• Build loyalty among the employees and customers of the organization to create an ongoing and sustainable innovation process to help the organizational growth.

Key Requirements When Planning a Communication Program for Innovation

Changes in any organization always tend to give better results. And for changes to be brought by an innovation program, communication is one of the key ingredients. It’s natural for people to resist any change. That is why it’s advisable to create awareness in the organization about launching any communication campaigns well ahead of time.

While promoting the communication plan it’s better to be vocal on various channels including print, emails, and in-person meetings. Furthermore, using various types of communication materials for such promotions as visuals, animations, etc., will help increase the impact of your communication plan.

Communication Channels to Support Innovation

Now that you know how imperative a communication plan is, here’s a quick glimpse at the communication channels which can prove helpful for it.

In-Person Meetings

In-person or face-to-face meetings have a different impact on the employees. Every person has a unique style of communication, but it’s always easier to respond when you are in the same place. Though it’s not always feasible to arrange such meetings, it’s advisable to arrange in-person meetings for better communication of ideas.

Presentations Followed by Q&A Sessions

There are situations when the entire team needs to address major changes in the organization. Such types of communications can be carried out through presentations followed by a quick question and answer round. This will inform the employees of the change and cater to any queries that arise in their minds through a Q&A session. The Q&A round is very beneficial and goes a long way in solving the common concerns of the team.

Emails

Another effective way to communicate through the organization is emailing. Impersonal emails can be beneficial as they provide an opportunity to carefully craft the words and deliver the message straight to the employees.

Websites and Online Reference Platforms

Another scenario is when a large amount of information is to be shared across teams, especially when the assets communicated could be used as references in the future. In such situations, information can be shared through online reference platforms such as intranets and websites. If the content shared includes videos and podcasts, websites can be paired with microsites to enhance communication.

Idea Management Platforms

Out of all the traditional mediums of communicating within the organization, an idea management platform can be considered the most modern and most suited way as it offers total transparency over the exchange of ideas. It enables your teams to track the step-by-step development journey of an idea from its conception to implementation.

Such platforms even support real-time feedback from stakeholders and facilitate healthy discussions between employees that steer your innovation projects towards success. Sample the likes of Infinity, Confluence, Crowdicity, Miro, and more.

On similar grounds, there is IdeasPro that works on the ‘Ideas’ component of Salesforce Experience Cloud. It’s a Salesforce-Native and Lightning-ready app that’s highly customizable and scalable and is enriched with features to enhance communication across the Salesforce community.

How IdeasPro Enhances Communication in Your Salesforce Community?

Packed with 20+ out-of-the-box functionalities, IdeasPro empowers your communication efforts with a number of features such as:

Idea Statuses

Comments and statuses on ideas help in providing constant feedback. This acts as a powerful communication tool to enhance engagement and drive ideation ahead.

Attachments

Attachments give a clear intent of the idea presented by an ideator to the community. Adding multiple attachments facilitates the easy transfer of files with an extended limit and enhances communication on the ideation platform.

Converting Email-to-Ideas

It auto-converts incoming emails to ideas and saves them into the Salesforce instance. This makes ideas management a lot easier and more effective.

Profanity Prevention

It blocks any kind of abusive comments or ideas on the community and keeps the integrity of your community intact while facilitating an amicable environment.

Conclusion

Communication is the key to making ideas flourish and creating a way for innovation. Although other methods also contribute, an idea management platform gives the necessary pathway to employees to communicate and bring creative ideas on board to support an organization’s innovation goals.

Want to Know How an Idea Management Platform Drives Innovation? Let’s Talk!