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 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 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 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 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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By Adam Siegel on Nov 28, 2017
Indian state Gujarat election prediction market pilot launched as precursor to 2019 general election
We're excited to be working with Idealantis, a startup based in Hyderabad, India on a prediction market pilot about the upcoming Gujarat state elections. Working with research organization People's Pulse, Idealantis has launched this test as a precursor to a country-wide effort for the general elections coming in 2019.
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By Adam Siegel on Nov 27, 2017
Growing into Humility: How Ideas Change with Age
Gordon Gecko in Wall Street famously said: “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, for knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind.” Unfortunately the problem with greed is that it tends to lack humility.
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By Adam Siegel on Nov 13, 2017
Sales and Operational Planning: Bad Forecasts Don't Have to be a Given
Cultivate Labs CEO, Adam Siegel, recently spoke at the Institute for Business Forecasting and Planning and spent time hearing directly form attendees about the challenges they face. He shares lessons learned about the challenges sales and operations planners face in their roles, and how crowdsourced forecasting can alleviate them and improve their forecast accuracy and efficiency.
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By Adam Siegel on Sep 27, 2017
Help LG Predict the Future
In partnership with LG Display, we are running a 6 month forecasting tournament about the high-end display industry.
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By Ben Roesch on Sep 11, 2017
Introduction to Blockchain-based Prediction Markets Terminology
Real-money prediction markets are illegal in the U.S., but blockchain technology is giving rise to several digital currency based prediction markets based on Ethereum. Cultivate Labs defines common terminology associated with blockchain-based prediction markets.
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