Storymining

Want to build a more innovative culture?

Chances are innovation is already happening at your organization in many small ways. Mining for stories of innovation is a way to discover your organization’s unique and emerging style of innovation and identify opportunities to accelerate that innovation more broadly.

Storymining is a learning-rich ethnographic activity created by Ismet Mamnoon at Innovation Bound and has its basis in two modern innovation methodologies, Appreciative Inquiry & Design Thinking, as well as the ancient craft of storytelling.

How does Storymining Work?

Prework

Storymining begins with a simple pre-training activity (available in video or email format) which invites participants to keep their ear to the ground and collect stories about innovation in their area of the organization. These innovations can be large or incremental.

At the Event

Participants come to the facilitated learning session with stories they collected and exchange those with one another, identifying common threads about innovation along the way. Throughout the day they move between small and large group activities, slowly building an affinity map that identifies opportunities for innovation that fall into five categories: People, Process, Psychological climate, Product, and Purpose. Participants select opportunities from those categories and develop approaches to enhance innovation efforts for their teams or departments, and to promote innovation opportunities beyond their teams to their peers and senior leaders.

Benefits

By asking for stories about innovation, leaders are both learning about what’s working well in their teams and departments, while simultaneously encouraging and nurturing innovation efforts. This boosts the cultural drivers of innovation. By coming together with other leaders and identifying common threads to leverage and accelerate innovation, leaders are taking strategic approaches to enhancing innovation that naturally tie in to the organization’s culture.

Strategy grown organically from organizational culture!

Customization

There are opportunities to tie in with Organizational Development, incorporate additional training/coaching, and more.

Learn More

The Best First Thing to Do to Be a More Innovative Company - What if innovation is already happening at your organization, and all you need to do is discover it?