[Imagination Club] CHALLENGE: Selling an idea in your company

[Jeffrey Baumgartner]

CHALLENGE

This challenge is about selling an idea internally in a 
company (see background below). 

I think an Imagination Club would be a great tool inside a 
large, multi-national organisation. It would allow people 
to explore ideas, push creative thinking, collaborate on 
concepts and much more. It would help people network, 
discover expertise and get to know their colleagues across 
the world. It would not replace an idea management or 
suggestion system. Rather it would focus on very 
speculative creativity and networking. It would also be 
less structured.

The actual cost of setting up an imagination club would be 
entirely about staff time. The software for managing such a 
forum is freely available and most companies' IT 
departments could set up the forum in no time. 

The main issue is to get top management support for running 
an Imagination Club. 

How would you convince your company (or a large company 
like Ford Automotive, for example) to implement an 
Imagination Club?

BACKGROUND

One of you recently remarked that selling an idea 
internally to a company is a major creative challenge. 
(Unfortunately, I've forgotten who made the post and in 
what context it was - sorry!)

That's very true. Having great ideas is one thing 
(especially for a creative person like you), selling them 
to senior management can be quite another (unless, of 
course, you are senior management).

Looking forward to your ideas!

Jeffrey Baumgartner
Your Fearless Moderator

(NOTE: No, I am not intending to sell the imagination club 
concept. It's free! I simply thought it would be a good 
example)

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