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When Does Anonymous Idea Posting Make Sense? - The Diigo Meta page

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Bertrand Duperrin's personal annotations on this page

bertrandduperrin
Bertrandduperrin bookmarked on 2009-09-30 innovation retribution reward anonymity ideas ideation participativeinnovation openinnovation culture management

"Solid advice for any type of social software is that the greater the transparency, the greater the benefit. This means a bias toward making information available to all, not a few. It also means associating contributions to specific individuals. Visibility of contributors gives context, improves the quality of discussions and makes it easier to find individuals with ideas and knowledge on specific subjects.

But there are occasions when it makes sense to allow individuals to contribute ideas without revealing their identity, which Spigit's platform does allow. In these cases, the ideas and related information are visible to anyone who has eligibility to see them. However, participants in the innovation community won't know who submitted the ideas. There are two reasons companies would enable anonymous posting:

1. Employees are concerned about retribution for their ideas
2. Employee identity may influence the feedback others provide"

  • Fundamentally, this is a cultural issue. Something in the environment has sent the message that execution more than participative innovation is valued. The foundations of that culture need to be addressed.
  • In this scenario, anonymous posting is a bridge to a more transparent culture. It is a temporary feature to be turned off when the core work environment changes.
  • One of Spigit's clients maintains anonymity of idea submitters for the first two stages of ideas on its platform. Why? They are concerned that if employees know the identity of the submitter, that will shade the feedback they provide on a given idea. What this company wants is a pure meritocracy of ideas

This link has been bookmarked by 1 people . It was first bookmarked on 30 Sep 2009, by Bertrand Duperrin.

  • 30 Sep 09
    bertrandduperrin
    Bertrand Duperrin

    "Solid advice for any type of social software is that the greater the transparency, the greater the benefit. This means a bias toward making information available to all, not a few. It also means associating contributions to specific individuals. Visibility of contributors gives context, improves the quality of discussions and makes it easier to find individuals with ideas and knowledge on specific subjects.

    But there are occasions when it makes sense to allow individuals to contribute ideas without revealing their identity, which Spigit's platform does allow. In these cases, the ideas and related information are visible to anyone who has eligibility to see them. However, participants in the innovation community won't know who submitted the ideas. There are two reasons companies would enable anonymous posting:

    1. Employees are concerned about retribution for their ideas
    2. Employee identity may influence the feedback others provide"

    innovation retribution reward anonymity ideas ideation participativeinnovation openinnovation culture management

    • Fundamentally, this is a cultural issue. Something in the environment has sent the message that execution more than participative innovation is valued. The foundations of that culture need to be addressed.
    • In this scenario, anonymous posting is a bridge to a more transparent culture. It is a temporary feature to be turned off when the core work environment changes.
    • 1 more annotations...

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