The cycleway contest

Today a former collegue emailed me about a bicycle highway contest. I like contests. Probably I might never have outgrown my need for competition.
And I like winning more than loosing, so my self esteem might also be a bit lacking.

But for the contest. The provincial authorities - here in Holland we call this particular one a 'Stadsregio' something like a city region - like to have ideas for the new cycleway of about 15 km between the two cities Arnhem and Nijmegen. And as always in such contests the hardest part is to determine their yellow spot. Of the authorities of course.

 

Here you see the first and only elevated cycleway, opened in 1900 and had to connect the centers of Pasadena and Los Angeles (about 15 km! history is repeating) in a later stage, but never did because of the increasing popularity of the automobile. The 19th century was a gold mine of inventings and innovations.

The ideas shouldn't be that innovative that one may think it cannot be realized within the next years. Or - if the idea is too innovative - one should cover or even hide the innovativeness. At the same time it must be innovative enough to have a great appeal for the jury. Luckily they have foreseen in a questioning round which should be used to determine this yellow spot.

I usually follow a six step approach, although I didn't know that before:

1.

My starting point would be to see some global pictures of the area, a global impression of the list of requirements and a global impression of the jury. Above all not too much, because it might pull you in some implicit predefined formats which could steer your upcoming ideas. De Bono has written a lot about this phenomenon for example in The Mechanism of Mind.

2.

The second part is making a VIL (a vague-ideas-list, see the blog of traffic contest ideas for an example). The VIL describes globally for a number of ideas how they should work and what advantages they would have.

3.

At third we need to examine thoroughly all contest requirements, jury members, time scedule and so on. We need to know exactly how the ideas will be judged by the jury in order to make a proper funneling of the VIL.

4.

Fourth, out of the VIL three ideas are chosen: one improvement, one innovation and one inventing, trying to catch the yellow spot. We'll shoot with hail, not with a bullet, to increase the hit chance.

5.

The fifth step is the working out of the ideas with respect to technology, marketing and finance. And keeping in mind the right level of innovation and eventually covering or hiding tactics.

6.

And at last we need to make everything presentable, keeping in mind audience, message and target. When I heard from this classification the first time from Michiel Boswinkel I understood immediately what was wrong about my texts. Unfortunately is understanding and doing not the same and it is still hard work for me.

So, winning an innovation contest has nothing to do with a romantic thing like 'the best idea will win' or so. No, it is about the best strategy, the best tactics and the best performance, like in every battle. The ideas are just the means like the chess figures are the means for the chess player.

Okay, next time my VIL. If you like you can make your VIL and eventually we can put them together for a more complete list, and devide the work. Let me know.