PERF RMANCE 04 - The Performance Portal - Ernst & Young

“ Whereas a coolhunter observes
communities, a coolfarmer becomes
personally engaged in the process
of creating cool trends — not taking
control of a new idea to make it
succeed, but working in swarm
creativity to bring a shared vision
to reality.”
We find the creativity unleashed by groups
of humans swarming together to be
particularly compelling. So often, humans
traveling together in the same creative,
innovative direction produce the trends
that are most interesting and exciting.
Tapping into the collective mind can offer
tremendous benefits. Within a business
organization, unleashing collaborative
innovation can be key to increasing
performance, efficiency and overall
creativity. With the tremendous expansion
of online communication, the ability of
humans to engage in swarm creativity has
grown exponentially. Creative swarms can
form instantaneously and collaborate on
innovative tasks from almost anywhere on
the planet, crossing all organizational lines.
In every large organization as well, we find
groups of creative individuals swarming
together to explore ideas about which they
care deeply, irrespective of any direct or
immediate connection to the bottom line.
Our approach is based on the concept
of the Collaborative Innovation Network
or COIN, small groups of intrinsically
motivated people who collaborate, mostly
over the web and in online social networks,
to create something radically new. They
recruit their friends and family as a
“Collaborative Learning Network“ — the
group of early adapters who try out and
further develop the early prototypes — to
help them refine and polish their products,
deciding on what will be “cool” for the
swarm of loyal customers. This expanded
group of early users and beta-testers
then reaches out to the wider group of
thousands of people in the Collaborative
Interest Network who help them get their
new product over the tipping point to be
widely accepted by the marketplace.
Based on the concept of COINs, we have
developed the idea of coolfarming — getting
involved in the actual creation of new
trends by nurturing and cultivating new
ideas. Whereas a coolhunter observes
communities, networks and even broader
society, a coolfarmer becomes personally
engaged in the process of creating cool
trends — not taking control of a new idea
to make it succeed, but working in swarm
creativity to bring a shared vision to reality.
Coolfarming is based on four principles.
They are a logical consequence of using
coolhunting (Gloor & Cooper 2007) to
discover new trends and trendsetters.
The first is to gain power by giving it away.
It is the most important principle. Give
everyone involved in a COIN, no matter
what their level of involvement, the
feeling that they have come up with the
new ideas, so that all members feel a
strong sense of ownership.