It is exciting to see the rate at which innovation activities are being initiated. It is equally amazing to see how many of these forays are steeped in buzz versus idea progression. It would appear that people like to avoid the meaningful work around innovation processes and process innovation in favor of just pushing buttons.

Take the example of predictive markets. When one strips away all the bells and whistles, predictive markets really just amount to another voting mechanism. So if your Idea and Innovation Process already has a voting scheme to it, why have a predictive market on top of that? How many voting systems do you need before getting to work on building an idea towards a next step...or making it great... or getting it closer to market ready?

How many votes does it take before you stop voting and start developing that idea? Or does it just become a mutual admiration society for ideas? All this voting creates activity but does not create added value. If we agree the idea is good, that's great - there is a next step; in fact, there are several - collaboration...and then development; and then validation and then decision...and then planning...and so on. You get the picture.

The vote is an indication of intent; not a solution. Worse yet, it is statistically proven that the more you ask the same question, the more it skews responses from the original, un-skewed reaction.

So if instead of a bunch of two-line ideas with multiple layers of votes each telling us the same thing, how about an idea that has progressed and evolved into a mini-business case, replete with vote results, operational and/or market validation, some cost/revenue justification and a semblance of implementation - in order to move forward, one has to simply stop agreeing over-and-over and at some point start contributing real value.

Making innovations out of ideas takes more than votes - it takes meaningful contributions that build incremental value at every stage of an idea's ascension. So with less tabulation and more idea development, one can move towards a process that delivers innovation substance, not just more votes.