Here's how you can effectively convey the value of innovation to stakeholders as a community organizer.

Understanding stakeholders' needs is fundamental to successful engagement in innovation. For instance, if stakeholders prioritize environmental sustainability, you might showcase how a new recycling initiative or renewable energy project aligns with their goals. By addressing their concerns and demonstrating how innovation can directly benefit their interests, you build trust and enthusiasm for new ideas. This approach ensures that innovation efforts are not only relevant but also embraced and supported by those who matter most in the community.

Setup regular cadence for your stakeholders to update progress. Give actual updates and talk through success and challenges. Establish trust with proper data points and insist on advantages of innovation and long term benefits.

It is very easy to come up with a lot of random ideas and throw it at the community. Unlike a formal organization, there will not be an organizational hierarchy that will decide whether what you are proposing is relevant or not. So what do you do? This is where trust matters. You will first have to earn the trust of the members of the community. They will have to trust your intentions and your ability to deliver. Only at that point will they consider what you are bringing to the table. So you will patiently have to put in dedicated effort towards things that you can organize and deliver to the community as value and then from there you will have to take on bigger things as the community starts trusting you more.

Establish clear and accessible communication channels to build trust with stakeholders when promoting innovation. For example, provide regular updates through newsletters, community meetings, or dedicated online platforms where stakeholders can ask questions and provide feedback. This transparency shows your commitment to keeping stakeholders informed and involved in the innovation process.

Communication is key. As a community organizer, you should be able to clearly communicate the values and purpose of the innovation. Effective communication is beyond mere speaking. Your communication should be validated by response from the stakeholders. Their affirmation of understanding should be gotten by speech and evidence by action. Leadership is more about inspiration. When it comes to community activities, you will have to collaborate and partner with many stakeholders and success can only be experienced if you're able to inspire them to understand the values of the innovation and see them express commitment.

Simplifying your message is crucial for engaging stakeholders in innovation. For instance, if you're introducing a new community solar project, instead of diving into technical specifications, focus on how it will lower electricity bills for residents and reduce carbon emissions. Use everyday language and real-life examples to illustrate the benefits clearly. This approach ensures that stakeholders from diverse backgrounds can grasp the importance of the innovation and feel motivated to support it.

The innovation (of the company and product-service) is the event. Name it, brand it, own it by using upbeat action wording. Such as, we beautify, solidify, edify each sunrise. For a recent 'campaign" the theme was BRIDAL approach. The process had six (each letter of the acronym) facets to show the way forward. I sell the "innovation" as GROWTH, because every living thing GROWS. Our proactive innovation steers our maturation away from chaos (entropy) which is a (natural) law of physics w/o friction, input, leverage, effort. Every company grows daily therefore change is inevitable. Innovation orchestrates harmony and avoids cacophony.