Even Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Elon Musk didn't build their innovation alone. Truth is, great innovation stems from bringing together various fresh ideas from many people together. In a TED Talk session titled “Idea vs. Innovation: How to Create a Real Impact” Justin Gemeri, CEO of Ekipa, shed light on his learnings: solving real-world problems requires collaboration.
Innovation thrives on collaboration. A team with diverse skills and shared goals can enhancing execution efficiency and maximize impact. Moreover, working with others often makes the process more enjoyable and rewarding. To collaborate and find like-minded people who share your vision and mission, you can apply several steps that can help you work together to create an innovation.
Three Steps to Collaborate on an Innovative Idea
1. Identify a Real Problem
Every impactful idea begins with a clear problem to solve. Reflect on whether your idea addresses a real-world challenge that others experience.
2. Spread the Word
Start spreading the word online through platforms like LinkedIn and Instagram to connect with like-minded individuals. Beyond the digital space, expand your network by joining organizations or communities focused on innovation.
3. Find the Right People
Build a team of like-minded individuals who share your vision. Collaboration bridges skill gaps and creates a stronger foundation for innovation.
Echoing Gemeri’s insights, at GoTo Impact Foundation (GIF), we embrace cocreation as a cornerstone of innovation. We believe that bringing together people from diverse backgrounds enriches the solutions we aim to create and this is reflected in how we design our program, Catalyst Changemakers Ecosystem (CCE).
For this year’s batch, we’ve set a new requirement: innovators, or as we call them, "changemakers," must register not as individual organizations but as a consortium. These consortiums are formed through an organic matchmaking process facilitated by GIF.
How does the matchmaking process work?
It all starts with choosing a problem in a specific location. Identifying such challenges ensures changemakers direct their energy toward real and tangible issues rooted in community needs. This ensures changemakers channel their efforts into addressing real, tangible challenges rooted in community needs. Moreover, this approach encourages them to view issues from a systemic perspective rather than being confined to narrow, sector-specific solutions.
Once a location is selected, changemakers participate in matchmaking sessions organized by GIF. These sessions provide access to directly interact with potential collaborators. Serving as vital first touchpoints, they also open opportunities for further exploration and partnerships beyond the sessions.
Changemakers who are interested in participating in the CCE program are requested to submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) form, where they detail their background, focus areas, and motivations. From these submissions, selected participants review profiles of other organizations with similar missions. The organizations then need to form a consortium with a shared goal. In this process, GIF merely facilitates the organizations through online speed dating sessions without intervening in the consortium formation process.
Following these sessions, changemakers must form a consortium comprising startups, research institutions, and NGOs. This multidisciplinary approach blends expertise in business, research, and community engagement, ensuring the resulting solutions are both relevant and holistic.
By requiring such collaboration, the Catalyst Changemakers Ecosystem (CCE) challenges the mindset that to innovate, you have to do everything alone. Instead, it promotes the idea that true innovation thrives in collaboration. Often, the solutions you’re working on may already align with others’ initiatives—or their innovations could complement your own. As Gemeri says it: don’t be a lone wolf.