Today in Melbourne is the last of this year’s Intranet Innovation Awards roadshow sessions. Running these has helped me to refine my thinking about what innovation really means, and how to put it into practice on our intranets.

These are the key messages I’ve been highlighting at the sessions:

1. Steal good ideas. Look at as many intranets as you can, and (ethically) steal the best ideas for your own intranet. These are often small improvements or innovations, that add up to something big over time.
2. It’s not about the technology. Many of this year’s winners used very traditional technologies, or deployed out-of-the-box products. Intranet innovation doesn’t necessarily require a new technology platform.
3. It’s all about solving business problems. Real value comes from innovative ways of meeting business or staff needs in new ways. These improvements often target one area of the organisation, or a single key group of staff.
4. Look for high-impact activities. With little more than a dozen wiki pages, Scottrade has given themselves a huge competitive advantage. There are hundreds of opportunities within organisations to have this level of impact, even with small projects
5. Implement seriously. Real impact doesn’t come from “rolling out” a solution and hoping for the best. If you want to see real improvements, put the effort in to gain adoption and to “dot the i’s and cross the t’s”.
6. Improvements are possible. You don’t need a million dollars to improve the intranet (although it would be nice!). Instead, many incremental improvements are achievable even within limited budgets and resources.

There are probably a hundred good ideas to steal from this year’s Intranet Innovation Award winners. Our goal is to build (or rebuild) enthusiasm amongst intranet teams, and to encourage every team to start making productive changes and improvements. Get started next week, no need to delay!