Through recent discussions engaging social media and technology experts, innovation leaders and entrepreneurs have outlined a central question that could help generate long term value for their projects: what human values could we define for innovation? You could see this presentation as a "thinkathon" collating customers, finance stakeholders and business experts views and processing them through methodologies defined as the discussion goes along. We created a tool to capture requirements, a thinking framework to compile user stories into user solutions, and a management tool to monitor costs and results. Finally, we have consolidated results into an end-to-end plan which you can use to tell your own story and build human values for innovation.

1. How can you build human values for innovation?
weareinnovation.org
Tell Your Own
Story
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WAI Loop#2 Round#6 - Feb 2017

2. About weareinnovation.org
weareinnnovation.org is a global think l@b curating and analyzing information related to future
developments, management and strategies, to make sense of innovation and inspire intelligent
change.
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Organized as a live strategic plan, it aims at analyzing trends shared on social networks among
innovation peers to outline key messages and catalyze change. The blog builds a living story of
the initiatives developed around change management, ecosystems and business models implied
by innovation, as well as specific technology trends such as Big Data and Internet of Things.
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As a result, weareinnovation.org provides a 360° overview of innovation as seen from experts and
analysts for readers to share fresh views and questions in their daily business life.
weareinnovation.org

3. About the Author
With over ten years of
experience as Marketing,
Business Development and
Strategy Manager for major IT
and Consumer Electronics
companies, Johanna Camp has
developed and driven global
strategic plans for a variety of IT
products and services.
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Her keen interest for
innovation has led her to take on
decisive roles in rolling out
technologies that are today being
used by millions of customers
around the globe, interconnecting
networks and applications to
d e v e l o p e n h a n c e d
communication services. From
product management to
financial analysis, she has an
in-depth understanding of
processes, business models
and market ecosystems.
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After an intensive career
path in Paris, she moved in La
Châtre, Georges Sand’s
hometown, where she now
concentrates on her writing
ambitions and enjoys a happy
f a m i l y l i f e . A s
weareinnovation.org author,
she has spent the last four
years reading and analyzing
the meaning of innovation for
scientists, investors,
entrepreneurs and end-users.
In the midst of an economically
deserted French rural area, she
has managed to help local SMEs
build their innovation processes
to attract strategic customers and
investors, implementing
innovation and diversity in an
ecosystem looking for a new
breathe.
!
!
Giving a voice to innovation
is not her only passion, as she
also exercises part of her
creativity writing songs as lead
vocals for her own music band,
actively participating to local
social life and cultural diversity.
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With a Master’s Degree in
Management from Grenoble
Ecole de Management,
Johanna is dedicating her time
and energy sharing a
meaningful life, using
innovation as a tool to open
her ideas and thoughts to the
world. Johanna is 33 years old,
mother of a young daughter and
married to an inspiring design
manager, a keen English and
French literature reader, playing
piano when she is not typing on
her keyboard.
weareinnovation.org

4. Introduction
Through recent discussions engaging social
media and technology experts, innovation leaders
and entrepreneurs have outlined a central
question that could help generate long term value
for their projects: what human values could we
define for innovation?
!
As an intent to answer this question, I have
analyzed how our innovation community would
formulate their requirements through diversity
profiles built for the most recent innovation
segments analyzed on the blog. The question
asked to the database is: « How can we build
human values for innovation? » The entry data
for this analysis can be found in « InnoTrends »
section. I have then investigated how to build
virtuous difference circles from the hence
identified need, using analytic and strategic
methodologies defined in our latest innovation
tools: « Content Marketing: Keeping substantial
and intentional » and « Innograph: Communities,
Cultures and Companies ».
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Finally, I have outlined how such virtuous circle
could be maintained on the long term by
monitoring costs of uniformity, and applying them
to our latest Innometrics: « Human in the digital
workplace: assessing our readiness to
disruption ».
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The end results draws an action plan and
strategic recommendations you can use as an
inspiration to build your own human values
for innovation.
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I also offer dedicated sessions to go through your projects
and priorities if you need further assistance rolling-out
diversity as a management and innovation practice in your
business.
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Contact me at: johanna.camp@weareinnovation.org
weareinnovation.org

5. Content
Author’s comments
Diversity profiles
Management view
Operational view
Experts view
What is your diversity profile?
Connected added values for
customers, financial
stakeholders and business
experts
« And yes, you can do it over a
coffee break »
Difference virtuous circles
Management view
Operational view
Experts view
How to build virtuous difference
circles
« Knowledge as a currency »
Key attributes of your human
values for innovation
« Three is a magic number »
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Costs of uniformity
Management view
Operational view
Experts view
How do you manage your costs
of uniformity?
« Because we never follow the
planned plan »
Tell your own story: key
success factors to define
human values for innovation
weareinnovation.org

6. Author’s comment
Having worked in both disrupted and
disruptive businesses, I have a deep
understanding of the importance of human
links in delivering highly pressuring work while
still maintaining a human framework for
creativity. One of the teams I was engaged
with had the responsibility of defining strategic
plan for multiple countries in Europe, and
needed to combine ideas from a variety of
field specialists to create stories to market that
would convince internal investors.
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You could think the challenge resided in
compiling all information to come to a
meaningful story that would get internal buy-in
and support. In reality, the challenge was to
get internally trusted information from the
right contact, with the right level of details
and intent that would help foster the right
messages. Information supported by an
engaged sales manager who drives on-going
discussions with strategic customers soon
outpaced specialists market analyses even
though they helped calculating credible
market sizes and understanding competition
threats.
!
Presenting new concepts to market proved
more relevant when it combined an end-user
viewpoint to an internal financial threshold
while anticipating long term trends and
positioning the brand on a systemic level,
rather than a short term commercial priority,
even though it was the initial request. This
end-to-end story could only be compiled
by understanding personal backgrounds
provided with information, and this context
necessarily calls for human interaction,
and delivers human value: the conviction
to invest in highly engaging projects that
binds individuals to deliver commercial
objectives that would benefit to all
stakeholders.
weareinnovation.org

7. Diversity profiles

8. Management view
Economic and business disruptions are leading an increasing
number of businesses, from various sectors and type, to face
daily complex challenges they need to handle on top of
developing their business as usual activity. The growth of digital
opportunities as well as the exponential impact of new joiners in
incumbent markets question the stability of so far known
business strategies.
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Because the trends generating this situation are linked to
systemic issues, such as our interconnected economies and
related decisions as well as our generational divides and
diverging cultural ideals, only systemic approaches to change
are able to guide businesses in best defining how to innovate.
weareinnovation.org

9. Operational view
Diversity is a key element in defining individual value within complex systems affecting and
interconnecting a growing variety of ideas and issues. By developing diversity as an innovation practice,
project owners, team leaders and stakeholders are able to find the exact skills they need to deliver
personal and unique value.
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In our management report “Diversity as a success story“, we detail the components of inner and outer
diversity which can be used to define team, projects and individual diversity profile as a holistic way
to scope the combined business and human value of an initiative.
weareinnovation.org

10. Experts view
« Since we have a human start for a common story between technology, businesses and values,
it seems inevitable to better consider the human also standing at the conclusion of the story. An
idea may be to provide users with the trust that developments are taking into account their
stories, focusing on human sense out of technologies, gradually shaping commonly desired social
and systemic goals. »
weareinnovation.org

11. What is your diversity profile?
The objective of building diversity profiles is to understand how skills, ideas and projects can be
combined to develop a constructive partnership. Such tool can for example determine what specific
role each partner should play and anticipate potential challenges in interacting with other
specific members or partners. Diversity profile should outline the human components of our
conversations, breaking them down into specific diversity category to define common denominators
to build upon.

12. Redefine
innovation
Open
Communities
Connected
Social
Global
Emotional
Complexity
Structural
Constructive
Individual stories
In-depth expertise
Personalities
Customers’ diversity profile
Context
Appearance
Words
Voice
Body
language
Will
Common
sense
Under what conditions could such
positioning be profitable to businesses,
employees and customers?
weareinnovation.org

13. New reasoning
scheme
Smart approach
to data and
analytics
Micro and macro
changes
Beyond profitability
Creating higher
value
Optimized margin
New
products and
services
Unstable
Economic
Environment
Finance diversity profile
Context
Appearance
Words
Voice
Body
language
Will
Common
sense
« New ecosystems and models that reinvent
our approach to economic growth »
weareinnovation.org

14. Invest and spend
time for
organizations
Hyper-
connected
communities
Complexity
Multiplicity
Solutions
Organization,
technical
skills
Mindset
and tools
Social,
technological and
economic changes
Business experts diversity profile
Context
Appearance
Words
Voice
Body
language
Will
Common
sense
« Build sense rather than complex
processes »
weareinnovation.org

15. Combined added values
How can we build ecosystems and models profitable
to customers, businesses and employees that
reinvent our approach to economic growth, focusing
on sense rather than complex processes?
weareinnovation.org

16. « And yes, you can do it over a coffee
break »
Of course, major businesses have their own style
and would set-up meetings weeks in advance to ask
commercial, finance and business managers to
come and sit down around the same table before
slides are shared on a screen for everyone to
discuss. The most impactful insights I have
gathered though couldn’t be shared within those
closed, restricted presentations that tend to
direct ideas and opinions by interfering with
personal agendas and career representations
affecting information shared publicly.
The information needed to build engaging stories has
to cover personal visions and working habits that can
only be discovered by meeting people instead of job
titles and business objectives. Here are three ways I
can share to meet characters and ideas behind the
business card (and please, don’t stick to phone calls
and e-mails :)):
Be a sales learner!
Ask account managers to take you through their
latest business review and visits on site, without
specific question or agenda. Take your own tour
through their eyes. What new barriers or need
can be explored on top of existing offers?
Be curious about numbers!
Ask questions about the latest finance review
and find out how and why those numbers were
built, how long it takes to reach those
conclusions. You’ll be amazed.
Spend time with your community!
Business community gatherings are an important
place to share business and customer insight,
make sure you participate to creating links and
use those safe places to challenge your own
projects.
weareinnovation.org

17. Download the full plan:
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https://gumroad.com/l/hkguY
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Read more on:
https://weareinnovation.org
Our global innovation story, as we write it.
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