How to solve the biggest problems with ideas - Knowledge Hub Team

Ideas come and go. The really great ideas usually spring up unexpectedly in moments of inspiration, often when a group of people come together. Ideas tend to emerge more easily when we free ourselves from the mundane, everyday, conventional thoughts and allow time for creative thinking. Having a space to jot down these ideas can be very useful, and can lead our collective thoughts and suggestions to blossom into something new.

What is the Knowledge Hub ideas function?
‘Ideas’ is a place for group members to share ideas and see ideas listed by other members. All group members can add an idea and ‘like’ an idea, which means you support it and would like to see it implemented. You can also add comments to support the idea, provide additional information, or explain why you don’t support the idea. If the ideas function is not available in your group, ask the group facilitators to turn it on. 

To organise all of the ideas listed and help keep track of them, the status of ideas can be changed to: in progress, completed, rejected, and withdrawn. Using the ideas facility, decisions and actions can be consulted on easily and quickly by identifying the most ‘liked’ ideas.

How does the ideas function work?
‘Ideas’ can be used in two ways:

1. Facilitated – the group’s facilitators put forward a number of ideas around a specific topic for members to vote and comment on. You will then be able to view the most liked. This is handy for a number of related ideas where decisions need to be made about which ones to implement within a given time frame.
    
2. Non-facilitated – all group members can add their own unrelated ideas as and when they come up, for other members to vote and comment on. The ideas will be listed in order of most liked. 

How can my group use the ideas function?
‘Ideas’ can be used to help make decisions on a number of activities within a group, and to find out group members’ thoughts on something specific.

Here are 8 ways you could use the ideas function in your group to collaborate:

1. listing suggestions for possible work areas or actions
2. publishing consultation options to inform future directions
3. planning and designing themes for events and activities
4. sharing and promoting innovative thinking
5. finding out how services are performing (health checks)
6. allocating competition entries
7. shortlisting possible actions or decisions
8. developing a marketplace of members’ wants and offers

So the next time a great idea springs to mind, why not add it as a new idea and share it with your group? Your idea could be the start of something big to help develop your work and profession.

Find out more about using ideas in your group.

Keep up to date with our blog for more sneak previews and news on what’s changing on Knowledge Hub this year.

Missed our previous blogs about the changes coming soon?

• Read about the new look and feel here
• Read about the new notifications options here
• Read about the changes to your profile area here
• Read about KHub on the move
• Read about some of the new home page features
• Read about KHub’s new @mentions
• Read about the blog template
• Read about our recent user testing here
• Read about the new text editor
• Read about the new image editor
• Read about what to expect when your new KHub goes live
• Read about the new colourful icons for profiles and groups
• Read about how Knowledge Hub can help build your professional network
• Read about 10 ways to get the best out of wikis
• Read about 10 features of your group library