tag:blogs.rbc.com,2010:/innovator//4 2010-03-05T13:00:12Z Movable Type 3.33 tag:blogs.rbc.com,2010:/innovator//4.508 2010-03-04T23:45:09Z 2010-03-05T13:00:12Z

I have the honour of announcing the winners of the 4th annual RBC Next Great Innovator Challenge. After months of hard work, from idea creation and brain storming, research, proposal writing, prototype creation leading to a no holds bared presentation...

Tim rbc.com "transform the workplace to meet the needs of the evolving workforce…." Congratulations to the 4th Fibonacci, from the Schulich School of Business! Ms. Riddhi Sen Ms. Shirley Soon Mr. Jan-LukasWolf I’ll publish more details on the proposals and presentations for the other finalist teams soon, but everyone did an excellent job and really did impress the judges with the skills and capabilities of the workforce of the future. ]]> tag:blogs.rbc.com,2010:/innovator//4.507 2010-03-04T20:08:59Z 2010-03-04T20:12:20Z

After a quick break for coffee and blackberry checking the panel returned and we picked up with Team Jelly Beans, also form Ivey. Mapping the Human Network was a favourite of mine from the start; I think data topographies and...

Tim rbc.com Team Jelly Beans, also form Ivey. Mapping the Human Network was a favourite of mine from the start; I think data topographies and visual representations are a very powerful new tool. They looked to map the network first, identify the connections and the strength of those connections THEN use them as a conduit to get to business outputs faster and more effectively. They had a great set of use scenarios and get creativity points for referencing lawn bowling, and a great discussion on the "Facebook black hole" in productivity. Closing up the presentations, The Technologists , our 4th Ivey team, brought a specific case to us. Instead of tackling the whole enterprise, they chose to anchor their innovation in the private banking practice. Their presentation showed us that in this sort of wealth practice, pound for pound, the connections and innovations for sharing and retaining knowledge are worth real dollars- to the bankers, to the clients and to the balance sheet. I have to cite this team for bravely taking on both a technology and a business model innovation in an area where the cultural change implications are very serious. It certainly ignited the passions of the judging panel! With the presentation concluded we’ve moved to deliberations with our judging panel. The judges agree all the teams this year did an exceptional job- they’re all great innovators. Check out the blog later this evening to find out which team takes home the $20000.00 grand prize! ]]> tag:blogs.rbc.com,2010:/innovator//4.506 2010-03-04T14:58:56Z 2010-03-04T15:03:24Z

We are into the morning of the4th annual RBC Net Great Innovator Challenge, with out 3rd team already at the podium. After opening remarks by Carol Poulsen, SVP Group Architecture, Innovation & Solution Delivery, we kicked of presentations with Team...

Tim rbc.com Team Dragonfly from Ivey. Dragonfly brought a strong start to our day, impressing our panel with their idea, presentation and professionalism. RBCBlu, even included a prototype to illustrate the functionality. They really hit home with insights into the potential losses due to failing to retain the tacit knowledge held by skilled workers, and the importance of connecting to the millennial workforce. Second up was 4th Fibonacci from Schulich. 4th Fibonacci is unique not only as the only non-Ivey team this year but also due to the Jan-Lukas Wolf making his second appearance at the Challenge. Jan-Lukas was part of a finalist team in 2008. RBC Connect was showcased in a visually stunning and very professional presentation, and told us the human side of connecting the community of the workforce. RBC Connect proposes to turn those human interactions into compelling and productive business connections. Midnight Express also from Ivey is up now (as of 9:45). This Ivey team is approching innovation with a different aspect of enterprise 3.0- a business simulation platform. This adapts the simulation methodology already well understood in areas like fight raining. Eagle 1.0 would allow teams within the business (and across functions) to use a combination of real life and online scenarios to simulate different events in business so we can learn by practice and be skilled and well prepared if the crisis happens. The simulation experience also builds the team linkages and collaborative culture. We’re just about to enter the next Q&A period, more later! And you can get up to the minute reports from twitter.com/rbcinnovator ]]> tag:blogs.rbc.com,2010:/innovator//4.505 2010-03-02T16:38:02Z 2010-03-02T16:43:11Z

All of the finalists are bringing in great ideas, and this year all of the judges from the early rounds agree that the proposal writing was some of the best we’ve ever seen. BUT… that only gets you to the...

Tim rbc.com Practice! Mom said it, your coach said it, and it’s true. I don’t just mean run through your slides a couple of times- this is serious competition. Practice your content, timing, hand offs and if time allows practice some back up strategies too. (Like who can cover someone else's section, what happens if something doesn’t work, what if we run long etc). I’m a big fan of really knowing the material first and foremost, not just the presentation contents. That expertise allows you to be much more confident in the presentation material. Know your audience: Hard to do since we’re not revealing the judges until the morning of the finals, but a skilled team or presenter can make an educated guess about who might be in the room. Think about what that audience’s expertise and interests could be. Make sure you cover off the data, insight and “what’s in if for me” that they need and want to hear. In this case the panel are definitely experts in banking so I’d focus less on things like current state and more about the unique value in your innovation, how it actually works and how it benefits the target (workforce, the bank, the bottom line etc.). Anticipate questions: You might not be able to guess at what all the questions will be, but you can prepare for some. Have a coach or other students throw some tough questions at you and have some material ready to go to answer those. I’m a big fan of having a few slides in the appendix of my presentation to pull out in Q&A. It’s a very powerful thing to be able to say “great question, we thought of that and here’s the detail on the solution…” as you pull up the back up slide. Test Audience: Just as I recommended with the written proposal run the presentation through with trial audience who isn’t familiar with it. Afterwards get the trial audience to tell you what they thought the presentation was about and what your idea was. Maybe ask them about the key features or mosr compelling value points. If the audience version doesn’t match up with what you wanted to get across you need to make your presentation clearer. Be a Pro: Be ready, have everything proofed, packaged and tight, be confident, treat the panel like they are your guests, speak clearly and (respectfully) own the room. It’s your time; use it to win the big prize! ]]> tag:blogs.rbc.com,2010:/innovator//4.503 2010-01-21T14:30:49Z 2010-01-21T14:35:24Z

After a very exciting session with a panel of execs from across the bank we’ve landed on our 4 finalists for this year’s Next Great Innovator Challenge. (More on the top 4 later.) Now it’s your turn; you can tell...

Tim rbc.com 4 finalists for this year’s Next Great Innovator Challenge. (More on the top 4 later.) Now it’s your turn; you can tell us who the 5th finalist team should be. Way back in the fall when the teams were crafting their proposals we asked them to write an extra summary section: the peer voting synopsis. We asked them to be brief, but this synopsis was to allow them to tell you about their idea or innovation in their own words if they were selected to be in the running for that 5th spot. The PV is important in a number of ways; it lets everyone participate with us (the students, teams, fans and followers of the competition), it sends us a clear message about what is important to people outside of RBC and finally it is a real mark of distinction for the team who takes the spot. For that team they know that not only was there proposal a top 15 contender it was the most resonant with the audience. Regardless of how they place in the finals that is something to be proud of. Anyone can vote once per day here. You can discuss the merits of the ideas in our forum. (Note to post a comment you must complete a simple registration, and only comments in context please!) Now you tell us, who will be the 5th finalist? ]]> tag:blogs.rbc.com,2009:/innovator//4.502 2009-11-30T18:40:07Z 2009-11-30T19:28:23Z

I wanted to pick up with the tips on the different sections of the proposal template for this year’s Challenge. (Just a reminder you can download the template here.) Today I’ll write the final sections to write, the Peer Voting...

Tim rbc.com here.) Today I’ll write the final sections to write, the Peer Voting Synopsis and the Executive Summary. Ironically these are the first section your audience or judges will read. It is vital that they are clear, compelling and lead the reader to want to dig into your proposal. And of course they have to be connected to what you have contained within that proposal. (For other tips on a winning proposal check out this blog entry from last year.) Peer Voting Synopsis: This is a departure from most formal business proposals or cases, but a lot like the real world. Since there is a pretty good chance that your team may be chosen for peer voting you have to have an “elevator pitch” prepared for the audience of the Challenge. Imagine that you are in an elevator with a group of top Executives and you have only a few minutes (or in this case 250 words) to give them enough insight into your idea that they would want to give you the time for a full presentation or even better ask for a copy of the proposal on the spot. What you say has to be tight, compelling and to the point. Remember, in this case it’s your peers reading your Peer Voting Synopsis and sending your team in for a chance at $20,000.00! Final tip: Have a couple of people who know nothing about your proposal read your PVS and then ask them a) to tell you what they think your concept is and b) if they would vote for you. Executive Summary: This is a key section in a complete proposal. It’s called an executive summary for a reason. It really is an…. EXECUTIVE…. SUMMARY…. In the real world you have about a page to hook an Exec into wanting to spend the next ½ hour with your proposal. If you don’t hook them, they won’t read further, unlike the academic world where the Executive Summary is more of a primer as your reader/Prof/TA is required to read your work to mark it. In our judging everyone reads the proposals completely but your Executive Summary is the first impression. - State your problem and assumptions clearly and succinctly. Tell us exactly what you are tackling, why this is important and in what context it’s important. - State proposed results and outcomes. Cliffhanger endings are for TV and movies. You want an executive to read on? Jump them ahead to the AMAZING result, and tell them if they read deeper they can find out the exact details. Readers want to hear “what’s in it for me” early. Dedicate about a paragraph or two to this. - State anything that is really special or stands out about your idea. One or two lines about what we’ll find in your idea that we won’t find anywhere else is very compelling. Your audience will read on for fear of missing out on something great! - Avoid giving a team bio or long winded explanation of how you came up with the idea, unless it is absolutely essential for some reason. If you must, keep it very short and indicate more details are in the body of the proposal or appendix. - Summarize, summarize summarize. This is not the place for the whole plan to be laid out. Tell the reader you have a plan and the details in the briefest way possible. Indicate the full plan is in the body of the report. Lay out the Executive Summary once, then reread it and see if you can summarize more. Repeat. A masterful Executive Summary is a tease that makes the reader want those plan details. - Final tip: Just like the Peer Voting Synopsis, have a few people read your Executive Summary and then ask them (without reading it from the summary) to tell you what they think your idea is and what the outcome of implementation will be. If what they say sound substantially different from what you think your idea is you need a rewrite on the Executive Summary . Ask the reader if your Executive Summary makes them want to read on and find out more. ]]> tag:blogs.rbc.com,2009:/innovator//4.501 2009-11-23T12:12:06Z 2009-11-23T12:18:05Z

I know I had promised a blog about the executive summary and the all important appendixes, but I thought I would interject with a kind of concept map about “The Bank” (Canadian financial services companies). I wanted to suggest a...

Tim rbc.com Which will you transform?]]> tag:blogs.rbc.com,2009:/innovator//4.500 2009-11-17T19:09:04Z 2009-11-17T19:14:32Z

I know it is still early in the proposal submission period (at least from a student perspective) but I’m sure a number of teams have landed on very innovative ideas and are beginning to wonder how to describe them. And...

Tim rbc.com And more importantly, how to describe them in such a way that will WIN a spot in the finals. It has been my experience that it can be helpful to understand the framework that the narrative (the story of your idea) needs to be presented in early- not to bias your writing but to balance it. I thought I would tackle the proposal template for you to make sure you can spend more time on your idea and have less to worry about in the write up. Unfortunately we can’t post the contents of prior years’ proposals, but I can go through the template section by section in the next few posts, giving you some insight into what should appear there. My first recommendation is please follow the format. In order to be consistent as a judge the format has to be uniform across all submissions, thus enabling us to really look at the content. Every year a few teams invent sections while it may have great content it doesn’t track with the judging criteria. Let’s look at each main section: Proposed Innovation “Suggest innovative methods or tactics to transform the workplace to match the needs of an evolving and increasingly diverse workforce.” You can tease us in the executive summary, but in this section you have to give details! Bring in the context of your idea, why you feel it has value and for whom and start fleshing it out. Use tight conclusions on the “whys” and results, but don’t provide every shred of evidence here; use the appendixes to hold your evidence and back up your proposed results. You can describe: - Describe the target of your innovation and their value structure. Who are they? Give us their characteristics and the conclusions on what will need to change and why they will benefit. - The description of the innovation itself: why is it, what does it do, for whom, when, where, where it’s coming from, why you think it’s important, what supports it etc. - The unmet need or opportunity your innovation targets, or the risk it mitigates. - Interim conclusions, summaries of results and proposed outcomes; make the reader want to continue on to find out more. - Why your innovation is something Financial Services providers don’t know or do but should! - Anything you feel really introduces your innovation to us and sets the Canadian Financial Services context. Implementation Plan “Describe, at a high level, the key things that should be considered for development and implementation of this idea.” This is the real meat of your proposal. Here you answer the implied part of the Challenge; that is HOW Financial Services providers actually would use your idea to create a different workplace or way to work. A great idea without a plan attached is not yet an innovation. Here you add the plan and really start to create an innovation. Mastering this is what makes our team APPLIED Innovation. We know you’ll have made assumptions about the sector, and costs and even lines of business and that’s OK. Just be sure to clearly state what assumptions (also fits nicely in the appendix) you made. It’s the framework that you are setting out to make your innovation fly that we really want to see. Remember this is another section to expand on your idea. Give us the key elements, tactics, capabilities and steps here and any conclusions justifying them, but put the detailed evidence in your appendix. We want to know that you have a vision on how your innovation will work! Impact of your Innovation “Describe the area (who or what) your innovation will impact and the outcome. What implications does this have for the future of Canadian Financial Services?” This is a fantastic area to really give us the “sell”. Show us who your innovation will add value for. Tell us your insights into those employees, managers, leaders, clients or stakeholders,. Tell us how this will change the workplace in Canadian Financial Services for the portion of the workforce you have concentrated on, and how that relates to customers, other parts of a Financial Services provider or the shareholders. For example: does you innovation allow us to work differently, therefore allowing more talented employees to do more for the client? Or perhaps it streamlines some work function using technology and allows a better work life balance for all employees? Or is it a connection between groups which preserves or creates knowledge and makes the business unit more effective and competitive? How does it make this workplace THE workplace of the future? And the real fun of innovation is taking us into the realm of the possible; make a call on how your innovation will shape the future. Appendixes I love appendices. By putting evidence and information in the appendices you can write a very nimble proposal which focuses on the key elements, conclusions and RESULTS while referring the reader to your appendices for the evidence. And since we do not limit the word count on the appendices or in fact the format you can really beef up your argument here. You can use just about any sort of content; we’ve had financials of course, and research, but we’ve also had resumes, storyboards, charts, prototypes, mock ups and even strategic analysis in innovative frameworks (Blue Ocean, VRIO- some of my favorites!) Next post- the Executive Summary! ]]> tag:blogs.rbc.com,2009:/innovator//4.499 2009-11-09T18:30:28Z 2009-11-09T18:38:23Z

A lot of people have commented on the broad nature of this year’s challenge question. Lots of comments have been in favour, as that is what we face in the real world and particularly in innovation, and others who are...

Tim rbc.com COULD BE. What workplace do you want to have? What is the “art of the possible”? Then you can narrow down from there. We are looking for your idea in a financial services industry context, but not necessarily an explicitly as an RBC case. If you are looking for inspiring materials check out the Innovation Center. We’ve just uploaded new links to some great blogs and reports on the Challenge theme and we’ve also chosen some interesting SlideShare presentations to start you off on the issues and opportunities in the workplace of the future. If you are interested in the diversity angle, have a look at the recent Canadian Immigrant interview with Zabeen Hirji, our Chief Human Resources Officer, and the executive sponsor of this year’s Challenge. Here are some thought starters I’ve been sharing with students. When you are considering ideas ask yourself things like: • How do you create collaboration and meaningful connections across a multi-generational and/or increasingly, diverse workforce? • What technologies will be needed to navigate the evolution of the workplace? What cultural shifts must occur? • How do those characteristics and needs relate to work as it is? As it will be? • How will your proposal create value for employees, clients and the enterprise? • Does your innovative idea and plan: target a specific portion of the workforce, a specific line of business or functional area? • How does yout innovation create competitive advantage? That should get you started on your path to innovation. Next blog I’ll talk about tackling the problem or hypothesis and how to get insight about the workplace(s) in the Canadian Financial Service industry. ]]> tag:blogs.rbc.com,2009:/innovator//4.498 2009-11-04T01:23:34Z 2009-11-04T01:25:36Z

We’ve had a few requests and have decided to make sure everyone who wants a shot at submitting a proposal has a chance. We’ll extend team registration to midnight, local time, on Thursday November 5th. The online registration is closed,...

Tim rbc.com We’ll extend team registration to midnight, local time, on Thursday November 5th. The online registration is closed, so to get a late team in you need to email all team details to nextgreatinnovator@rbc.com. Be sure to include: Team name Contact information for each member Name Address with postal code Email address Phone number School and area of study We’ll update the database and send you your team profile ID and password. Keep in mind we cannot extend the proposal deadline, so make sure you are ready to submit by Dec 6th. Check in on my next blog on thought starters for this year’s challenge theme! ]]> tag:blogs.rbc.com,2009:/innovator//4.497 2009-11-02T16:35:24Z 2009-11-02T19:20:46Z

Team registration has closed for another year. We’re really happy with the registrations this year. We’ve had a strong showing from schools who have participated in the past like Ryerson (the 2008 and 2009 champs!) Schulich, University of Waterloo, UBC...

Tim rbc.com Innovation Tool Box with some links to sources to get you thinking about the workplace/workforce of the future. We’ve also selected some new SlideShare presentations to give you some angles to think about. Finally, the secure idea share feature is running as part of your team profile. You can enter the kernel of your idea under the Share my Innovation option, and create a list of mentors/advisors to send the idea too. They’ll receive an invitation to log in, rate your idea and leave comments. You may have other ways to collaborate, but if you don’t we’ve added this for you to try. Thanks for registering, welcome to the Innovator and happy Innovating! ]]> tag:blogs.rbc.com,2009:/innovator//4.495 2009-10-13T18:47:44Z 2009-10-13T18:57:04Z

Our Innovation warm up is complete and the winners of the fist ever RBC Innovation Mini Challenge are The Pink Rangers from Simon Fraser University. You can download their proposal here. The Pink Rangers have the unique distinction of being...

Tim rbc.com here. The Pink Rangers have the unique distinction of being the first ever team to win a Mini Challenge! We tried the topic of Social Innovation this time around, specifically looking for innovative ways to allow groups that create social innovation and social good to connect and collaborate. This topic was chosen to be more open and less Financial Services or technology centric. We hoped to attract the interest of a more diverse group of students, which it did. We hope to see all the teams that tried the MC register and try for the big prize in the Next Great Innovator Challenge. The judges found the MC fell into 2 categories right away- good ideas and ideas that really went the extra mile. We liked all of them, and as one judge put it “it was easy to see the social merit of all of them, but we had to judge them in the framework of the innovation question”. We can certainly see going back over the proposals to see what can be done with the ideas, or in some cases the combinations of the ideas. The Pink Rangers proposal worked in the interconnected and collaborative nature of the challenge question and gave it depth by using both real world and off line tactics. The public ranking of the ideas was interesting, with the public being in favour of 5 of the proposals by a wide margin. The Pink Rangers was in the top 5 by public ranking as well. We’re contacting the team now to congratulate them, arrange their prize deliver and to find out which RBC sponsored charity they would like donation (matching their prize) directed to. And a special mention to all the teams from Professor Kietzmann's class at SFU (including the Pink Rangers). We recieved 7 proposals from teams in that class- thanks for Innovating with us! Look out central Canadian schools- west coast Innovators may be challenging you this year! ]]> tag:blogs.rbc.com,2009:/innovator//4.494 2009-10-06T22:34:14Z 2009-10-06T22:43:17Z

It’s been a hustle this year running the new Mini Challenge at the same time as preparing the Main Next Great Innovator Challenge. Double the work some days and of course there’s keeping the names straight; but Innovation Mini Challenge...

Tim rbc.com Mini Challenge at the same time as preparing the Main Next Great Innovator Challenge. Double the work some days and of course there’s keeping the names straight; but Innovation Mini Challenge (as in smaller version of) and Main Next Great Innovator Challenge (as in the Main event) seemed to keep us straight. Today we are at an interesting midpoint; the Next Great Innovator Challenge is now up and open for team registration and the Mini Challenge voting is about to close. We’ll have a winner next week for the MC, so if you haven’t read the proposals have a look here before midnight and chime in with your rating. The voting isn’t the only judging criteria, but it is important to share the public opinion with the RBC judging panel. I’ve noticed some of the MC teams have stuck together and already registered for the Main Innovator Challenge, which I think is great- they’ve had a warm up, now are primed to jump into the bigger challenge! Some students have been asking where to start. I’d recommend having a look at our Innovation in Action presentation to give you our perspective on how we do what we do at RBC Applied Innovation. I’d then have a look at some of the links to external sites about innovation to get a feel for the approach. Next step would be to get your team together for your first brainstorm session on the topic. I would suggest you get each team member to do some back ground reading on workforce and workplace of the future in general terms, with perhaps some focus on the Financial Services industry but keep it non-specific. Ask them to read what they want (on topic of course), and share a summary or the articles before the brainstorming session. But more importantly at this stage find things that are interesting and inspiring. Then get together and let that inspiration flow. A few brainstorming tips:- Have some background research done, but don’t constrain the research sources or approach too much. Research from a concept point of view; don’t get to tactical at this point. - Do a little warm up to get everyone thinking; show off a good example, watch a funny YouTube video connected to the topic ("The Office" anyone?), tell a personal story, have a word association; anything to get the brain out of day-to-day linear thinking mode. - Have a facilitator who keeps things moving, makes sure all ideas are heard and helps clarify points. The facilitator sacrifices the ability to input, but it’s a very important job. - Be sure to group the ideas that support each other or relate. Look for novel connections too. Often a group of tactics will illuminate a bigger concept, or a group of issues will link up to expose a real root cause of a problem. - White boards, flip charts, sticky notes and your digital camera (to capture the notes) are tools of the trade. - Circulate the summary to everyone and see if there is a round of after-the-fact thoughts. The French call this "l'esprit d'escalier", meaning "that perfect thought you had after the meeting as you walked down the stairs". And keep an eye on the website and here on the blog. We’ll start introducing resources and perspectives we think might help you form your ideas into the winning proposal! ]]> tag:blogs.rbc.com,2009:/innovator//4.492 2009-09-23T20:08:42Z 2009-09-23T20:17:13Z

Our 4th annual Next Great Innovator Challenge is live! The wait is over and this year’s Challenge question is now posted and team registration is open. If you haven’t seen it on the Home page or Challenge page here it...

Tim rbc.com Home page or Challenge page here it is: "Suggest innovative methods or tactics to transform the workplace to match the needs of an evolving and increasingly diverse workforce." While it is open ended and forward looking as a good Innovation Challenge should be (no stuffy historical cases here!) we’re hoping that it gets you really engaged. We can’t tell you how to solve the Challenge, but we can tell you that the whole of RBC is excited to see what innovations you propose. Why this Challenge? Two factors contributed to choosing the Workforce of the future theme. As we wrapped up our 3rd Challenge last spring we noticed that a number of proposals, ideas and insights coming up repeatedly. On its own this is interesting since that conveys a strong signal about the repeated idea or insight, coming from independent sources, year over year. (I’ll write about that later.) We realized that each of the prior Challenge questions led to mainly client centric and technology based innovations; also a good thing. But we wondered how we could explore other areas that could use innovative approaches. Enter the second factor; each year when formulating the Challenge question the Workforce and Workplace of the future was suggested as a theme. It was always a very close second in the running. The light bulb went off and voila, this is the year to ask you to innovate with us around the Workforce theme. I’ll blog more about ways to approach the topic, and different ways to think about Workforce and Workplace. A few NEW things to note about this year’s Challenge: - The Innovation Mini Challenge! It’s our “innovation warm up”, and is still open until Sept 27th. Take on collaboration and connection to create more Social Innovation and your team can win $1000 while warming up for the Main Challenge. - Custom alerts. We email, blog, twitter and RSS; you can choose how you get your Innovator updates. - Twitter. Well it’s not 100% new, but we were the first to twitter for a bank in Canada, and we’re keeping it up. That’s not all- we’ll be adding features and material all through the fall to not only to help you with your entry, but to give you Innovation resources that you can keep on applying in school or in your careers. Finally, don't forget you can post comments here on the Innovator blog, and you can send any questions to nextgreatinnovator@rbc.com. ]]> tag:blogs.rbc.com,2009:/innovator//4.491 2009-09-09T15:51:09Z 2009-09-09T16:00:07Z

First, let me welcome you all back to school! Best of luck for success in all your studies, whether academic or more “social”! We’ve started to get the word out on the new Innovation Mini Challenge (the "MC") and are...

Tim rbc.com Innovation Mini Challenge (the "MC") and are already seeing teams register. I can imagine folks reading the Social Innovation theme and asking “Hmm, interesting but why would an Innovation group in a Canadian bank care?” Let me back it up a bit and tell you the Mini Challenge story. The idea behind the Mini Challenge is simple; we wanted to give students a way to warm up and try innovating with us leading to our main Next Great Innovator Challenge later in the fall. We took what we have learned in the past few years of running the main Challenge and boiled it down; simple entry, online, quick, a more open topic that can get the audience involved; and voila the Innovation Mini Challenge was born. The last item was particularly important as we wanted to attract students that might not jump right into the main Challenge but should! We wanted to use the Mini Challenge to attract other disciplines and perspectives, and encourage them to stay with us for the main Challenge. We also liked the idea of asking an innovation question in the MC which is not so financial services specific, so we can share the innovations broadly. Then the search for a topic began. This past year I’ve come across Social Innovation from a number of angles; seeing the topic emerge in my innovation feeds, seeing social change happening though online tools like twitter (i.e. hohoTO), offline via groups like The Torch Partnership and their great “Unfinished Lecture Series”, and the Center for Social Innovation just up the street here in Toronto. At the same time we have been able to work with our partners in the RBC Foundation on a number of opportunities. These influences and my own interests came together and got me thinking about all the great groups out there working to create a better society, and some of the emerging challenges and opportunities for them. We’re all challenged to do more with less these days BUT luckily we have things like social media, virtual worlds and mobility as new tools. And some of my favorite “old” tools too; ingenuity, inspiration and collaboration. With that in mind it was a short hop to come up with the MC Challenge question; to ask you to come up with innovative ways for all those groups to connect and collaborate. It strikes me that in that collaboration there is tremendous opportunity for us all to create some real Social Innovation! So get your team together and you tell us: "Suggest innovative ways to allow these organizations to connect and collaborate." Here are some groups to look at initially for inspiration in your innovation: Torch Partnership (and http://www.torchiswicked.com/ ) Center for Social Innovation Mashable’s Social Good Conference hohoTO RBC Foundation (and support for groups) ]]>