Naming your initiative to signal action and to deter free riders

We have all been part of a group project in which only a few did the work, while many went along for the ride. Many change initiatives face the same challenge. A few take the risks, raise the difficult points, or frame the opportunities, while many more join in simply because they fear being done in. Or they come for the coffee.

In the early stages of a change initiative, you want to find ways to attract those willing to imagine new possibilities despite imperfect conditions. You want to reduce the risk of people thinking aloud about what can be tried and how problems might be reframed as opportunities to explore. This is hard, if not impossible, if you have group members who are cynical or who believe that some benefactor beyond the group should do something to change the conditions. 

Your first task is to create a safe space for people not only to imagine what is possible but also to harness existing resources, energies, or even lessons from the past to try something different. For now, it may be best to invite a few people personally to join your “thinking-out-loud” session. But it is not possible to keep these ideas hidden. At some point, you must go public. Firstly, trust is not built in secret. Secondly, the fact that something is being tried should inspire others. Lastly, letting others know that people are working on a new initiative might also be attractive to new investors or contributors.

But how to attract the innovators and potential contributors while avoiding the nay-sayers or those entrenched in the way things are now?

One way to do this is to ensure that the name of your initiative signals a journey towards something or an active exploration. The name must indicate that some form of additional effort, a different destination, or some risk is involved. The initiative's name must be a first filter that attracts innovators and problem solvers, while at the same time creating a barrier for free riders and Status Quo maintainers.

Too many well-designed initiatives to innovate or challenge the status quo get stuck simply because the activity is labelled to sound like a topic that the tradition bearers, pioneers, and the indifferent identify with. A great idea may get stuck because those interested in the Status Quo or in deferring the problem to someone else outnumber those willing to explore alternatives.

People must not be included in the initiative by virtue of their current status, sector, location, profession, or any other generic category that encompasses both those who want to innovate and those who are comfortable with the present, or who have too much invested in the current arrangements. The main criteria for involvement should be your interest in collaborating and your willingness to contribute resources, information or effort.

Once you have the starting group members self-selected and you are moving in a new direction, one can always explore with the group of innovators whether somebody who did not join should be included.

In any case, as your new effort starts to show results, more people will want to jump on the bandwagon in any case.

Let me explain this in the context of some of the work we are currently supporting.

·      Ecosystems are often named by either the core technologies used (e.g. the Digital Animation Ecosystem), or a particular kind of beneficiary (e.g. the Women-in-Engineering Ecosystem). This name opens the initiative to almost everyone who identifies with the keywords it contains.

·      The promotion of adopting new technologies is often named after the technology, not for the kind of change or opportunity it unlocks.

·      The promotion of an area is often named after the location the place, not the kind of innovation or improvement that is being explored.

·      Sector development initiatives are often named after a key input, an existing process, or a key market served.

If you are going to try to get a group of people to try something new, then you should also name your initiative to signal risk-taking, exploring new configurations and opportunities to contribute to something different.