An ambition to get going emerges. Because you see opportunities. Because something needs to be solved. Because you've seen something interesting somewhere else. Because, in the shower, while running, or just like that, something suddenly strikes you. Because, in conversation with others, you decide you want to do something.

An ambition arises to which a decision to take action is linked. You realise you want something, and you start doing something. You become an initiator.

Initiatives can emerge in many ways. You can also encourage new initiatives to surface. Usually, there are already more initiatives than you think. If there is a need for initiatives, actively seek them out in this phase. Visiting outside the familiar circle (preferably visiting others together) is a powerful way to encourage the emergence of initiatives. There are many ways for new idees to emerge. It becomes an initiative when you or others move for it. 

Nurture mavericks. Listen to whistleblowers. People who come from outside or have looked around elsewhere often bring with them new idees.

We know better. Remember that this initiative is the beginning of a journey of discovery, not the final solution.

Pioneer syndrome. The initiator has everything figured out, leaving no room for input from others to continue the quest.

Imported idea. What works elsewhere may not necessarily be successful in a new situation.

Look for each other's ambition. It is not the solution but the ambition behind it that triggers movement. The key question is: "What do we want to make possible together?"

Legitimise a search direction. Good initiatives are more likely to succeed if formal leaders set good broad outlines. Recognition in the form of a podium or award can be stimulating.

When you feel energy rising, a lot becomes possible. The discussion shifts from what one wants to go to how that can be made possible. What space is needed to develop the idea, and who can provide it?

Initiators look for kindred spirits. You mobilise a network of supporters and develop your idea into something you want to do together. When you find that others share your ambitions, the chances of making them a reality increase. You experience energy and enthusiasm.

You take the space to talk about your idea. You see new opportunities and you ask others about what they want and desire. You look for similarities and what you can make possible together if all partners would contribute their knowledge, expertise and resources. You do this not at the negotiating table but at the kitchen table. Not as an official on behalf of an institution, but as a human being with dreams and ambitions.

Once initiators talk to others about their idea, the inspiration phase has begun. They meet informally and allow themselves to dream together about what is possible.

With supporters hot on the idea. At this stage, you need people and not institutions.

You do well to seek allies in institutions you will need later. That way, you create a warm network.

Too early to boss. If questions about feasibility, risks and supporters have no answers yet, you are too early.

Dreaming for too long. The idea is starting point, and the end result does not yet have to be thought out in detail. If dreaming takes too long, the first supporters drop out while newcomers want to have all the discussions all over again.

The pioneer syndrome. The promoter has everything figured out and leaves no room for input from others.

Creating support. People feel no connection to their own concerns and ambitions and are not allowed to go through their own thinking process because the outcome is already fixed.

Budget-driven collaboration. If money is the main driver of cooperation, you can expect trouble.

Not convincing but connecting

Build a warm network first

Look for diversity in the warm network

Distinguish between the officer and the person

Map out who needs to get moving to bring the idea to fruition. Use the Network analysis.

Don't wait too long for the next step. You will notice when the carriers in the network lose interest.

When you feel energy rising, a lot becomes possible.

The discussion is shifting from what is wanted to how it can be made possible. What space is needed to develop the idea, and who can provide it?

The plans become concrete, with agreements on who does what, when, with what and how. The dream becomes a project.

It usually requires others who can make it possible, setting their conditions.

Making and approving project proposals is part of the planning phase.

It is about creating experimentation space. A project for innovation is basically a safe environment for doing what is otherwise not possible.

Those who make space for a project want to see something in return. Managers and funders want the project to contribute to their goals. The first task for initiators is to demonstrate that.

The second challenge is to claim the space needed to experiment, and act on unforeseen twists and turns.

The outcome is not yet known, otherwise it would not be a development process but a production process. The question must therefore be what requirements the solution must meet. For this, both the initiators and the 'enablers' put their requirements in the shopping basket.

People who can make space are managers, financiers, project assessors, politicians, etc. They have responsibilities in the existing structure, allocate scarce resources and assess risks. They have their own tasks and goals for which they set assignments.

Skipping experimentation phase. Those who want to realise the idea at once miss the opportunity to learn. The journey from an idea to a workable outcome requires learning, and engaging others to explore what a viable outcome looks like. Without that space, nothing new can emerge.

Fix on targets. The goal of the assignment is set in detail, with measurable end results and concrete intermediate products. This does not allow for experimentation, dealing with unexpected developments, making mistakes and learning.

Fixing expertise. If you have to contract all expertise at the planning stage already, you miss the opportunity to call on expertise and experience you don't know you need at the outset.

Planning too much research, wanting to explore everything.

Too few plans for including research.

Persuade. You will have to work with the people who give you space to develop. Wanting to convince them may result in a 'no'.

Application procedures have often become so complicated and require so much preparation time that genuine initiators with ambitions have no chance.

Create time for the development process and create space to experiment.

In negotiating with the possibility-makers: focus on the questions and not the outcomes. Agree on the questions to be investigated. The experimentation phase is in fact research: "interactive research".

Agree on documenting the journey. This is different from agreeing on intermediate products.

Make it easy to bring in outside expertise along the way. This could be experiential, procedural, or technical-scientific expertise.

If you are sufficiently confident in the space you will have to seek answers to your questions as agreed, you can enter the development phase.

The initiators get to work. Together, they develop new approaches that are tried out in experiments in practice. Results are discussed and new pilots are started. The knowledge of external experts is used. There are setbacks and surprises.

Inventing new ways and new practices requires space to experiment and also space to fail.

The development phase is a journey of discovery. You carry out planned experiments. You learn from setbacks, and try out different tracks. You involve external expertise that proves necessary. You document results, and gather sufficient evidence that the newly developed practice works. You ensure that all questions that had been raised in the planning phase are answered.

Sometimes a track comes to a dead end, or you need more space than you have been given for this development phase. Then you go back to the inspiration phase and take a new run-up to the planning phase.

The warm network from the inspiration phase may have developed into a project group, with project plans and a division of tasks. It is important to keep a core of carriers of the initiative involved. People with specific knowledge and experience are needed in this phase, as well as people who can document the process and outcomes convincingly.

Not being allowed to fail. 

Limiting yourself to what is provable.

Overvaluing hard data. 

Struggling over search directions and solutions. Then explore multiple tracks at once.

We are the experts.

Ignoring interests. Believing too strongly in-, or being attached to the dreamed result.

The better is the enemy of the good.

No time for reflection on process, and too much focus on content.

'Go to sleep in peace, we'll sort it out'

Do not get attached to the chosen means and keep testing it (in coordination with each other) for its intended purpose.

Already in this phase, involve stakeholders you will encounter in the following phases.

Be happy with failures. You can learn from them.

Accept that the swamp of trouble is part of it.

Combine data with stories.

Try different search paths.

Ensure diversity of sources, expertise and experience.

Seek assistance from stakeholder circles.

Agree beforehand on what is enough.

Take time to reflect on the process.

Communicate about the journey of discovery and not just the outcome.

If you have a working practice that can survive in the outside world even without the protection of the research project.

The new practice must now begin to prove itself in the outside world. Struggles are to be expected, as the new has to find its place in the existing structures. Not everyone is waiting for that.

Playtime is over, you have figured out something with which you hope to move people in the outside world. You start communicating with the key actors who need to get moving for the innovation. You want to inspire them to connect their ambitions with your conceived innovation.

And you start negotiating to create conditions that lower the threshold to innovation.

Engage with stakeholders and representatives with persistence and perseverance. Do informal preliminary work before meetings. Work on conditions that lower the threshold for renewal.

The firm network of initiators negotiates with gatekeepers, managers and orderlies who have an interest in the status quo. Gatekeepers who can open or shut the door to realisation.

We do not need you and know what is good for you. The initiators are very self-confident and exclude people with other interests.

Knowledge as a weapon. Selectively using scientific knowledge to support one's own rightness.

If the boss likes it, it's good. Whether people will change as a result: that depends on more factors.

Skip informal contact. For most innovations, formal steps are not enough.

How do we make this possible together? Engage in conversation about the beckoning prospect from the development phase, but don't try to convince. 

Allow others their own development phase. Everyone needs their own thinking and learning process to give meaning to innovation. Resistance need not be down to the quality of the idee. From the response to change something there is something to learn about the functioning of the system.

If other people spontaneously adopt the innovation, then you have entered the dissemination phase.

Innovation is spontaneously adopted by people. 

People are taking note of the innovation and see the benefits. Dissemination is an autonomous process, but you can speed it up.

Accelerate dissemination by informing the potentially interested network. Determine your target groups, and find out which channels they use to gain knowledge. Deliver your message there, and seek and ask for feedback. Research how you like the innovation.

The network of potentially interested parties, the users of your developed application. 

"We published." The main pitfall is thinking you are done when you have communicated about the innovation to the outside world. Dissemination means that others really do something with it.

"We know what is good for you." Your innovation is not above suspicion. Remain open to criticism of your invention.

"Knowledge development is very different from knowledge transfer." Knowledge development also continues in the dissemination phase, but now on the interaction with the existing.

"Not reinventing the wheel". An innovation rarely fits seamlessly. Everyone has to go through their own spiral of innitiatives. But it is useful to learn from other wheelmakers.

All new users have to go through a learning process, basically their own 'spiral of initiative'.

Tell stories: not just the end result but the journey of discovery. The hero's story is stronger than a fair-weather tale.

Be curious about variations. What do people make of it themselves? How do they use it?

When innovation begins to become normal, and structures adapt. The enabling environment begins to form around the innovation.

When innovation begins to become normal, and structures adapt. The institutionalised begins to form around the innovation. Questions arise such as: how do you resolve the tension between the innovation and the institutionalised?

The structure adapts to the innovation, making the new normal.

You need an entrance and a channel to speak, negotiate and communicate with people responsible for order in the system. You want to talk to people responsible for structures, procedures, funding, job descriptions, about the tension between the 'old' and the 'new'. You want them to become aware of that tension and resolve it in the structures.

The enablers. Managers, funders, policymakers: in short, the people who pull the strings.

Survivors perceive the new as a judgement on what they did before: Wasn't it already good then? When they feel judged, they dig in their heels. Whereas change is normal and you can always learn.

Respect what is.

Find balance between stability and change.

Accept that every decision also has drawbacks.

Even when the new normal has become normal, there will be a need for change again. Then the initiative spiral will start all over again.