q&a_ employee engagement issues - employee engagement - innovation leader

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4$ (PSOR\HH HQJDJHPHQW LVVXHV (PSOR\HH (QJDJHPHQW ,QQRYDWLRQ /HDGHU KWWSVZZZLQQRYDWLRQOHDGHUFRPTDHPSOR\HHHQJDJHPHQWLVVXHV Save the date! Join us June 15-16 in New York City, as we return to the Big Apple for a Field Study. This two- day event will feature access to some of the most interesting and forward-thinking corporate innovation labs and programs, including MasterCard, IBM, Dow Jones, Thomson Reuters, and more. Get details, register » Q&A: Employee engagement issues We’re introducing a new Q&A feature as a way to let members ask questions anonymously and get useful answers from other members. If you’ve got a question, just drop us an e-mail, and let us know if you’d like an answer from a company of a particular size or industry (or even from a specific person or company.) The question below was answered by Anne Marie Dumais, the former SVP New Product Introductions at The Nielsen Company who is now at Brightidea. We thank our longstanding partner and supporter Brightidea for their assistance, and we invite your comments at the bottom… Question : Though we’re a $10+ billion company, I wouldn’t say that innovation is in our bloodstream. We’ve been working to instill a culture of risk-taking and innovation, and are butting up against employee engagement issues. Do you have any recommendations on program structure, team structure, and employee education? Any general principles you can share on “what works?” Thanks. Answer : This is a great question. The perfect recipe for enabling enterprise innovation is highly dependent on the organization’s structure, culture and operating mechanisms. As a first step, we suggest taking this short Innovation Strength Assessment. This survey will help you identify existing strengths and opportunities for improvement, while recognizing all prior efforts and building your innovation on a solid foundation. To Frame Your Thinking Every company has business functions, like an HR or IT department that are shared across the organization – so why not innovation? These ‘shared services’ centralize resources so businesses can function more efficiently. Developing an innovation program in a similar fashion, as a shared service allows companies to extract measurable value from ideas at scale. In fact, outperforming organizations are 79 percent more likely to establish a dedicated innovation team. Program Structure: Grounds Innovation A strong foundation starts with setting up a centralized, shared service for the innovation program – we call it Innovation as a Shared Service (ISS). ISS is a structured methodology for deploying a collaborative innovation process, governance and tools within an organization. HOME TOPICS REPORTS EVENTS RESOURCES F

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2/12/2016 Q&A: Employee engagement issues - Employee Engagement - Innovation Leader

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Save the date! Join us June 15-16 inNew York City, as we return to theBig Apple for a Field Study. This two-day event will feature access tosome of the most interesting andforward-thinking corporateinnovation labs and programs,including MasterCard, IBM, DowJones, Thomson Reuters, and more.Get details, register »

Q&A: Employee engagement issuesWe’re introducing a new Q&A feature as a way to let members ask questionsanonymously and get useful answers from other members. If you’ve got aquestion, just drop us an e-mail, and let us know if you’d like an answer froma company of a particular size or industry (or even from a specific person orcompany.)  The question below was answered by Anne Marie Dumais, theformer SVP New Product Introductions at The Nielsen Company who is nowat Brightidea. We thank our longstanding partner and supporter Brightideafor their assistance, and we invite your comments at the bottom…

Question:Though we’re a $10+ billion company, I wouldn’t say that innovation is inour bloodstream. We’ve been working to instill a culture of risk-taking andinnovation, and are butting up against employee engagement issues. Doyou have any recommendations on program structure, team structure,and employee education? Any general principles you can share on “whatworks?” Thanks.

Answer:This is a great question. The perfect recipe for enabling enterprise innovationis highly dependent on the organization’s structure, culture and operatingmechanisms. As a first step, we suggest taking this short Innovation Strength

Assessment. This survey will help you identify existingstrengths and opportunities for improvement, whilerecognizing all prior efforts and building your innovation ona solid foundation.

To Frame Your ThinkingEvery company has business functions, like an HR or IT

department that are shared across the organization – so why notinnovation? These ‘shared services’ centralize resources so businessescan function more efficiently. Developing an innovation program in a similar fashion, as a shared service allowscompanies to extract measurable value from ideas at scale. In fact, outperforming organizations are79 percent more likely to establish a dedicated innovation team.

Program Structure: Grounds InnovationA strong foundation starts with setting up acentralized, shared service for the innovationprogram – we call it Innovation as a Shared Service(ISS). ISS is a structured methodology for deployinga collaborative innovation process, governance andtools within an organization.

HOME TOPICS REPORTS EVENTS RESOURCES FIELD STUDY

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The ISS methodology and tools provide disciplineand organization around an ascribed set of roles,activities, and processes that maximize innovationsuccess and help the enterprise sustain and adaptinnovation efforts to the future needs of theorganization, supporting growth and producingmeaningful results.

Here are a few of the major tenets that create asolid foundation for any innovation program:

C-Suite PresenceHaving the c-level executive team provide frequentand visible support of the innovation program is key.Making the innovation program part of the company’s culture requires executives messaging frequently aboutinnovation. Their messages should:

Be clear on what the company defines as innovationEmbrace and celebrate “wins” and recognize the value in learning from “dead-ends”Believe and convey the fact that ALL employees add value to the innovation processHighlight areas of strength, and opportunities, via innovation metrics

Active SponsorshipEvery innovation challenge should and must have asponsor. The sponsor is the person who ultimatelyis accountable for the purpose, rationale and finalactions taken as it relates to the “challenge” (seedefinition below). However, having the sponsor’sname is not enough. They must actively engage inthe actual creation of the challenge to ensure theoutcomes are something they can ultimatelyimplement. Being clear and specific as to the roleand responsibilities of the challenge sponsor is veryimportant to the ultimate success of the challenge.

Program CharterYour innovation charter must be simple, clear and,most importantly, endorsed by key stakeholders. This may seem like a simple task, but getting both clarity andbuy-in simultaneously on a discrete set of innovation goals is no easy task, particularly in large organizations.However, this charter drives the speed at which the innovation goals and scale are achieved, so it’s extremelyimportant.

Team Structure: Facilitates InnovationRegardless of your organization’s level of innovation maturity, having an innovation team in place to managethe process is key. The structure of that team can vary:

Organizations leveraging the ISS model should centralize efforts under a single Innovation ProgramManager (IPM). The IPM’s role is not to own all of the organization’s innovation, but rather to be thecompany’s facilitator and guardian of innovation.In more advanced organizations, we recommend and teach how to set up a distributed IPM modelwhereby functions and geographies are enabled with multiple IPMs.

The core innovation staff should:

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Be Staffed with HiPo’sThe persons who actually make up this team shouldbe very familiar with many (if not all) parts andfunctions of the organization and regarded as high-potential employees (HiPo’s). They should have acontagious passion for innovation and a highdegree of corporate stewardship – putting theoverall organization’s needs first. Although manyskills will be required, one of the most important isexperience in dealing effectively with changemanagement. Depending on the organization,sometimes a corporate maverick-type will beneeded to get the job done, or in otherorganizations a socializer. Either way, this positionshould be well regarded and career advancing.

Empowered to GovernPutting names and faces on an org chart is not enough. The C-level executives and sponsors must empowerthe innovation team. Upon successful charter completion, clear roles and responsibilities for the team mustbe documented and communicated across the company. Part of this team’s responsibility is to oversee andcontinually optimize the innovation process, so the team must be empowered to govern. Governing theprocess ensures global ownership, compliance and holistic portfolio measurement of a company’s innovation.

Have Budget DollarsFor organizations just starting out it’s important this team have the budget available to invest in necessaryinnovation management tools (like Brightidea), including:

Accessible Resources to outsource and/or hire additional staff to handle increased demandMarketing Materials such as posters, collateral, videosAPI Integrations across various tools such as Brightidea, SharePoint, JiveSite Design/Seamless UX between workplace toolsTraining for employees, sponsors and the innovation team itselfRewards/recognitions for participants

Employee Engagement: Empowers Innovation

Ultimately all innovation is built on people. So THE most important ingredient to success is your employeebase, and the way you nurture this valuable ingredient will make or break the innovation program.

Here are just a couple examples of how we share and teach IPM’s to engage and educate employees:

One-Stop-Shop: Tell (and tell again) where’s the one place employees should always go to innovate –don’t make it hard!Stir the Pot: Include dashboards that show the top contributors by name for the past week or bestperforming region or group – this peaks everyone’s attention.Make it fun: Include fun challenges too – it doesn’t have to be all business.Cheer On:  Everyone IS an innovator – really! We have fun innovation style quizzes employees can take tolearn more about their approach to innovation.No Seams: Ensure the user experience is seamless in every way between the innovation managementplatform and all other workplace tools.Keep the Lights On: Finally, and most importantly, make sure you don’t keep employees in the darkabout their idea submissions. Communicate regularly and often around the status of their ideasubmissions and as well final outcomes that everyone can celebrate.

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Creating a successful innovation program takes very specific planning – as does executing it and keeping itrunning. The reward for this effort grows exponentially as your innovation team and enterprise adapt and developmore and more winning ideas, and create a culture of innovation focused on continuous improvement.

Published on April 21, 2015 in these categories: Employee Engagement

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