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Meet the New MIX—and M-Prize News

by Polly LaBarre on October 18, 2010

Humanocracy

polly-labarre's picture

Meet the New MIX—and M-Prize News

If you've noticed that things are looking a little bit different around the MIX, you'd be right. We've been working hard behind the scenes to pump up the look and feel of the site—and more importantly, to address and anticipate as many user experience issues as possible. Of course, the MIX is an ongoing experiment in collective contribution, so we're eager to hear your thoughts about the changes and the current performance of the site. Take a look around the site and offer up your feedback here on the blog. We have many more tricks up our sleeves and will continue to amp up tools and forums for contribution and collaboration over the coming weeks and months. We'll be introducing specific new features here, so stay tuned!

Dream Big

Meanwhile, some M-Prize news: The competition for the world’s first management innovation prize has officially closed—and the judging has begun! We’d like to send out a hearty thanks to the hundreds of MIXers who poured their bold thinking and tremendous effort into crafting STORIES and HACKS aimed at tackling the moonshots of Increasing Trust, Reinventing Leadership, and Taking the Work out of Work. We are inspired and energized by the sheer variety and originality of the submissions—and we and our panel of Mavericks are hard at work on the difficult task of choosing just a few winners.

As a reminder, the six winners of the M-Prize will not only gain global recognition (including mention in Gary Hamel’s Wall Street Journal blog and a feature in the McKinsey Quarterly), they will also be recognized on the stage at next year’s World Innovation Forum (WIF) and receive free registration to attend the event (a $2,200 value). The grand winner earns a coveted speaking slot on the stage of the WIF, alongside such celebrated thinkers as Dan Pink, Clayton Christensen, and Roger Martin.

While those prizes are pretty amazing, we believe we’ve all already won. The more progressive management ideas and practices we unearth and spread, the more effective all of our organizations will be—and the more engaging, productive and rewarding work will be for the people inside them. So thanks again for your extraordinary contributions. Stay tuned for the announcement of the winners in mid-November.
 

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chary-chigurala's picture
Hi Polly

While the winners of M-Prize are being decided, I suggest the forum be open for BIG Dreams, Radical Ideas and Out-of-the-Box Solutions.  The postings on MIX to-date have been so thrilling and thought provoking, speaking volumes of the creative juices of authors. It also opened new acquaintances and friendships to many  

Innovation is a continuous journey, which began at the spark of human thought and will continue for ever.  Prize or NO Prize; Pat or NO Praise, let this party continue.  My question is, how will MIX Management continue this flow?

To-date, the contributions include great ideas, some in fact ground breaking.  I think its worth  taking this to the next stage, ie, testing the ideas.  Let MIX offer an opportunity to test these ideas in a 'real company' with 'real issues' - Possibly on a 'non-commercial' basis (initially). We would then know the real value of these ideas. Is it possible to set up a 'Live Collaboration' site with willing companies? 

Best regards, Chary 

polly-admin's picture
Hi Chary,
Thanks for your note. I love your ideas and we're always thinking about new forums for contribution on the MIX. We definitely want the party to continue—we're just getting started!! A couple updates on that front:


The M-Prize is actually a system of prizes (not just a one-off), so while the judges are hard at work selecting the winners of the inaugural M-Prize, we've just announced the MBA M-Prize. And just as you suggest, the winning team for that prize will earn the opportunity to launch an experiment in management innovation inside a real, global company (with a budget of $50,000). We'll also be announcing other new prizes (not restricted to MBAs) and challenges that involve the community in very real world contexts in the coming weeks and months.

As far as your larger idea around the MIX as a platform for making REAL progress on urgent management challenges, we're right there with you. One experiment we just launched on that front is the introduction of our Moonshot Guides in three moonshot areas. Our guides have free rein to take the conversation deeper, launch experiments, set challenges for the community—and we'll be watching what emerges to help in our next stage of designing more collaborative tools for MIXers as fast as a scrappy startup can. Check out my latest post for more info on the guides.

Finally, here's a question for you: it seems that you work inside a real company (!)—how much traction have you gotten when it comes to engaging folks around the "innovation bazaar" idea you lay out in your Hack? It would be great to see that conversation unfold--both on the MIX and inside an organization. One starting point: do you know fellow MIXer Jim Lavoie? Your design for the innovation bazaar very much syncs up with what he created at Rite Solutions (a market for ideas, talent, cash and a process for filtering, developing the best into actual products and new directions for the company). You can check out his story here.

Our wheels are spinning in the same direction--stay tuned as we announce new prizes and initiatives and please keep contributing and commenting (and invite your colleagues to do the same).