Institute For The Future

10 Ways Ruby's Bequest Can Add Value to Your Organization

 On March 16, IFTF launched the fourth in a series of ground-breaking open collaborative research platforms—Ruby's Bequest—and we know your company will gain value from participating.

Ruby's Bequest is an online experience in which thousands of people are working together to imagine—and make—the future of health and caregiving in the United States. We're calling this "collaborative storytelling for the social good" with the goal of bringing together people of all backgrounds and experiences to collaborate and share ideas toward creating real 21st century solutions.

Many of you are beginning to realize the value of storytelling and crowdsourcing in your work, so we wanted to connect you with the tools to engage with these themes (see our list of 10 ways Ruby's Bequest can add value to your organization).

Again, we launched on March 16 for anyone and everyone to participate—to share a story or idea all you'll need to do is send an email or even just make a phone call.

Hope you'll join us!

 

Ten Ways Ruby's Bequest Can Add Value to Your Organization

1) Use Ruby's Bequest as a source of consumer insight: tap the wisdom of crowds here about how families, caregiving, communities, government, and para?governmental service providers will look in the future. What products & services will they need?

2) Designate staff to participate in Ruby's Bequest and quietly share about your involvement as part of a PR/Marketing/Branding/External Relations Initiative. Involvement in an initiative like this can help build an image as an engaged and caring company.

3) Immersive Learning Ability is a leadership skill for the future. Ask participants in training/leadership development to play this public game as a chance to practice this skill and ask them to share their learnings back with the group.

4) Give 'designated innovators' a chance to engage with the emerging realm of storytelling, which is becoming increasingly important for products and services in the retail, health, and technology space.

5) Give 'designated innovators' license to participate in Ruby's Bequest as a chance to learn about gaming as an emerging platform for engaging consumers and customers.

6) Encourage employees to participate in Ruby's Bequest individually or with their families as part of an company HR Wellness Initiative. Employees who are struggling with and unprepared for caregiving situations will not be able to perform as well.

7) Pair a company representative with the customers with whom they work most closely and ask them to play it together. It will help to position your company as an innovator, will build their relationships and shed a different light on the consumer needs you are addressing together with your customer.

8) Designate an IT leader to participate in Ruby's Bequest & report back on insights gained from this provocative exercise. What technologies will help connect people who care about each other in the future? How will that impact the technology investments you need to make today?

9) Ask a subset of your product/service development team to participate as an input into your innovation process. How will people use healthcare products and services to fill the gaps in the future? Will your company be a part of the health space, looking ahead 10 years?

10) True leaders are those who make the future. Ask one strategy person to test your strategic plan against these future scenarios that will shape the ecosystem of caring & report back. How do you want to position your company to lead change in this world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity & ambiguity?