FBlog

News that unexpected public demand for ‘Your Freedom’ – the UK government policy crowd-sourcing initiative – crashed the idea-gathering website last week is an indication of a surge in popularity for digital participation. The site, which asks citizens to submit and rank suggestions for the repeal of ‘oppressive laws’, will provide inputs for a new freedom bill from the UK coalition government this year. Crowd-sourcing, or harnessing the wisdom of crowds to solve problems and generate ideas, has replaced ‘social media monitoring’ as the most searched, least understood marketing buzz term. And governments and brands alike are starting to experiment with the power of crowd intelligence.

The site claims that over 2,200 ideas were submitted on the first day alone, with over 18,000 votes and 7,419 comments. Some of these ideas were more controversial than others – including a repeal of death penalty laws and those forbidding humans marrying horses. Nick Clegg, Deputy Prime Minister and figurehead of the initiative is reported to have said that Your Freedom is designed as a “…raucous initiative the government was not supposed to control.”

But the markers of crowd-sourcing success, for government and business, are not the volume of ideas you are able to generate, or even their quality. The single most important rule is to act on the ideas created and filtered by your crowd. Being guided by voters is, of course, a principle driving parliamentary democracy, although it remains to be seen how far the coalition implements ideas that people vote for (particularly if they conflict with policy or good taste). Businesses on the other hand, are not constitutionally or operationally guided by democratic principles. So the risk of ‘crowd-washing’, or asking for ideas to look good, rather than actually change strategy or innovate around customer thinking, is even greater for corporations and brands.

Some businesses are already relatively mature in their use of crowd-sourcing techniques and make a point of highlighting the number of ideas they have implemented from their crowds, not just how many were submitted. Importantly, Best Buy Idea Exchange, MyStarbucksIdea and Dell IdeaStorm all reveal how many ideas have been used by the business.

And this leads to a broader point about the use of crowds for innovation, or any strategic engagement with stakeholders. If you’re going to tap the wisdom of crowds, make sure this kind of openness is consistent with your values, you have executive sponsorship to implement the ideas generated, you manage the expectations of your crowd accordingly and consider the reputation impact of doing nothing at the end. Just like good management, if you’re going to ask the opinion of your team, make sure you are open to changing your mind. If not, don’t ask.