Cultivate Labs Blog
Discussing how crowd forecasting, internal crowdfunding, and other new workplace trends can be used to improve the #futureofwork
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By Vanessa Pineda on Apr 24, 2020
Cultivate Forecasts now offers presentation mode to capture live forecasts at meetings
New presentation feature lets people forecast -- and see the results update in real-time.
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By Vanessa Pineda on Apr 23, 2020
Cultivate Forecasts just got a lot more collaborative with team functionality
Forecasting in teams can lead to greater accuracy, and we've got the features to make it possible, like private team pages with discussion boards and team rankings.
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By Adam Siegel on Apr 22, 2020
New Platform to Crowdsource Experts' Forecasts on COVID-19 Pandemic
Partnership by Cultivate Labs and Good Judgment Inc will aggregate forecasts from experts to better understand the implications of the COVID-19 crisis and share the results with decision makers.
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By Adam Siegel on Dec 17, 2019
Prediction Markets give hope to reproducibility crisis in scientific experiments
I talk to Anna Dreber Almenberg, an economist at the Stockholm School of Economics about prediction markets she's running to try and address the reproducibility crisis in science.
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By Adam Siegel on Oct 24, 2019
Schedule Chicken
Schedule chicken is when someone is personally behind on their work, but doesn't say anything because they think someone else will, and take the heat for it, thus protecting their own ass. This apparently goes on at Apple, and is completely absurd. There's another way.
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By Adam Siegel on Oct 15, 2019
Announcing Flashcast
We're excited to announce the availability of a new product, Flashcast. Flashcast is an entirely new way to interact with your audience. Ask them to make predictions about a related topic and watch the results, live.
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By Vanessa Pineda on Jun 13, 2019
Cultivate talks to The Wall Street Journal about internal crowdsourcing
Cultivate Labs and two of our clients, AstraZeneca and the Canadian Nuclear Labs, were featured earlier this week in The Wall Street Journal's, "Companies Turn to Internal Crowdsourcing to Pick Best New Ideas."
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By Adam Siegel on May 31, 2019
We need to make it feel ok to be wrong sometimes
No one enjoys being wrong. It’s an unpleasant emotional experience for any of us. But that’s exactly the risk we’re suggesting people take when we ask them to make a forecast about the future.
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By Vanessa Pineda on May 02, 2019
3 lessons in global innovation from a Fortune 100 that’s winning outside the U.S.
If you’re leading a large team that’s globally dispersed, you understand the challenge to create an innovative culture that can span physical boundaries. Here are 3 lessons from one Fortune 100 client running an innovation campaign across multiple countries that's exceeded expectations in countries including Japan.
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By Adam Siegel on May 02, 2019
Don't Kick Em' When They're Down
As I was scrolling through news this morning, I noticed a headline: Energizer’s 18,000mAh phone-battery monster is an Indiegogo flop. Checking other headlines about this, the news and commentary were equally brutal.
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By Adam Siegel on Mar 14, 2019
The Rise of Anonymous Tough Love (And Not a Moment Too Soon)
When we start projects with our clients, one of the first items we talk about is whether they want people to be anonymous in our prediction market or if they’ll use their real identities. The answer often reveals a lot, both about company culture and their personal fears of what will be made transparent. The spoiler alert is most don’t want anonymity.
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By Adam Siegel on Mar 05, 2019
The Culture of Fear Problem
After working with dozens of companies who have culture initiatives, I’m convinced their multi-million dollar investments in consultants, employee time, internal marketing, and the like will only see a partial return because a blocker is in their way: their culture of fear.
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By Vanessa Pineda on Nov 01, 2018
What are “flash crowds” and how do we recruit them?
Our bread and butter working with clients is organizing their employees to participate in crowdsourcing exercises. Recently we have been approached more to help get forecasts from external crowds, either to support research projects, or to better understand what outside experts or customers think.
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By Vanessa Pineda on Oct 22, 2018
Canadian Nuclear Labs’ scientists crowdfund $1.4M in seed-stage ideas
The Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL), the nation’s premier nuclear science and technology organization, just ran its inaugural “Seed Program” committing $1.4 Million for employees to propose – and (using company funds) directly invest in – new projects for the research pipeline.
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By Adam Siegel on Oct 22, 2018
Before we talk, are YOU ready?
In the last month we’ve had two potential clients, after receiving proposals from us for projects, say they needed to step back and start the projects very differently than what we had originally discussed. They just weren't ready yet, they acknowledged...
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By Adam Siegel on Oct 08, 2018
Appreciating a roof over my head all over again
I recently took a trip to the White Mountains in New Hampshire to hike the "Presidential Traverse" and was reminded how much we take for granted in our daily lives.
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By Adam Siegel on Aug 14, 2018
Can you crowdfund your way to a better culture at your company?
We recently did a project with a private company doing quite well in the marketplace. Its products are widely used and its growth over the past few years has been spectacular. Financially, the company is on really solid footing. But culturally, there were storm clouds. Growth has meant employing a few hundred people to a few thousand in only a few years. The CEO recognized this and lamented at the company's loss of its original hacker/builder culture...
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By Adam Siegel on Aug 13, 2018
Thoughts on Augur, the decentralized, blockchain prediction market
I've been watching for the last few years the announcement, long delay, then recent launch of Augur, the decentralized, blockchain-based prediction market. First off, despite it taking a long time to launch, Augur finally did, and kudos to them for doing so. Building a prediction market from scratch is not easy, building a prediction market on top of immature technology is harder, and building a prediction market to be completely decentralized with smart contracts is downright scary.
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By Vanessa Pineda on Jun 08, 2018
The Gig Economy Isn't Taking Over
Today, The New York Times published a piece, "Maybe the Gig Economy Isn't Changing Work After All," which debunked a popularly held belief that the rise of Uber and other gig work would cause a rift in the relationship between companies and workers. Our white paper on the future of work had predicted the article's newfound perspective. We want to hear your thoughts!
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By Adam Siegel on May 25, 2018
Pitch Perfect Security with Lending Club
We're pairing up with Lending Club to sponsor a monthly event where cybersecurity startups pitch their companies, and the audience gets to make predictions on our prediction market about how they're going to do in the next year in terms of fundraising, hiring, etc.
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By Vanessa Pineda on May 07, 2018
NFL's Cleveland Browns launch crowdfunding pilot to improve recruitment and retention
Could the 2018 NFL season finally be a turning point for the Cleveland Browns? For a team that’s had enough rocky starts on the gridiron these past few seasons, the front office rank and file is turning to a Kickstarter-like approach to give a jolt to innovation.
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By Cultivate Labs on Mar 22, 2018
Let Employees Run With Change, It’s Not a Health Risk
When an organization is undergoing dramatic change, much of the focus is rightfully placed on how leaders communicate to employees. But what's often forgotten is getting signals back from employees about how they're dealing with change. Are they supportive? What do they think should be prioritized? An internal idea crowdfunding campaign can be a powerful motivator to make employees part of the solution and give purpose when it's most needed.
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By Cultivate Labs on Mar 19, 2018
The Traffic Light Metaphor for Project Status is a Disaster
Everyone who has worked in corporate America has seen or used it. The traffic light metaphor for status. Red, there’s significant problems with a project. Yellow, there are some issues, but we’re going to make it. Green, all is good. Unfortunately, this system is a disaster for decision making.
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By Adam Siegel on Dec 08, 2017
Very Satisfied with Client Satisfaction Survey
Recently, we launched a formal client satisfaction survey effort using a third party. Here's how we did.
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By Cultivate Labs on Dec 05, 2017
Cultivate Forecasts - Mobile App Update for iOS and Android
Register an account for Cultivate Forecasts mobile directly in the app.
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Our thoughts on internal crowdsourcing and the future of work.
