Innovation Networks in Action–A Case Study Innovation Training and Development Whitepaper Series

(Document 4 of 4)

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Table of Contents

Introduction ........................................................................................................... 1

Innovation Networks in Action – A Case Study ..................................................... 2

Author Biographies ............................................................................................... 6

Innovation Networks in Action–A Case Study Innovation Training and Development Whitepaper Series

Introduction

The art and science of innovation management within large organizations is growing ever more complex.

The success that many programs are achieving at coming up with new ideas is creating a new set of prob-lems, which leaders of relatively small innovation programs are struggling to address. These issues include how to scale a culture of innovation across large organizations, how to enhance the flow of innovative ideas being executed and how to create greater financial impact.

Increasingly, innovation leaders have responded to these challenges by focusing more aggressively on educating large numbers of employees around innovation skills, and then supporting them with personal networks and connections once they graduate from the training.

This series of four whitepapers outline key steps and examples on how to establish this kind of approach within an organization, in a way that drives the most value to all stakeholders. Whitepapers within the series include:

• Whitepaper #1: Why Bother? The Value of Training Your Employees Around Innovation • Whitepaper #2: Can Innovation Be Learnt?• Whitepaper #3: Taking Innovation Training to the Next Level: Integration With Employee Networks• Whitepaper #4: Innovation Networks in Action – A Case Study (This document)

Each of these whitepapers can be downloaded for free from www.culturevateinc.com.

We hope that the combination of theoretical and practical approaches provided within these documents is helpful to readers and welcome any comments that you might have on these important topics.

Kind Regards,Anthony Ferrier, Culturevate and Wendy Castleman, Intuit

Innovation Networks in Action–A Case Study

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Innovation Networks in Action–A Case Study

In this fourth and final installment in this whitepaper series, we examine a live case study where both

innovation training and network development have been actively managed and sustained within

Intuit, an IT organization based out of Silicon Valley.

Nearly every company in the world claims that innovation is important. What matters are the actions the com-

pany takes that support those claims.

Intuit is a company that considers innovation to be important and all employees are expected to be innovative

and make an impact. Intuit has built an ecosystem of activities supporting Innovation including; unstructured

time, innovation jams, training, lean start-ups, innovation awards, and innovation tools. Central to these

efforts is an employee centered innovation network that increases interest, support teams and build capa-

bilities across the company. I am currently the leader of one of the most robust and effective innovation

networks at the company – the Innovation Catalyst Community. The Innovation Catalysts have been written

about elsewhere [Martin 2011, Castleman 2013], but this article will focus on the cultural impact of this net-

work and the implications for other organizations.

“It wasn’t that we didn’t care about innovation; we just weren’t investing in it.”

Although today Intuit is recognized as being an innovative company (Forbes 2013, Thomas 2013, Upbin

2012), it wasn’t always that way. We were a caring and collaborative organization where people mattered, but

we were not an innovative culture. It wasn’t that we didn’t care about innovation; we just weren’t investing in it,

especially across the entire company.

All of this began to change in 2008, when leadership recognized the need to change the way we’d been

working as a company, with more of a focus given to creating innovative offerings that delight our customers,

instead of just incrementally improving them to make them easier. When our new CEO, Brad Smith, told us

in 2008 that we were going to be a “premier innovative growth company”, many of us thought that sounded

absurd. However, we also realized that we were the ones who could make that happen. Different initiatives

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started popping up, some sponsored and some not. Unstructured time was introduced when an engineer devel-

oped our first mobile app on her own time over a weekend. Idea Jams began to proliferate to get teams to come

up with new ideas and pitch them to our leaders. At the same time, a group of us created a strategy for how we

could get the company to move from talking about Designing for Delight and to start doing it. Included in that

strategy was the development of a network of Innovation Catalysts who were passionate, trained employees that

coached and facilitated other teams. The strategic goal was to form a globally disbursed, cross-functional team of

innovation experts, who would be champions for innovative activities and drive cultural change across the organi-

zation over time.

Suzanne Pellican was tasked with creating the first Innovation Catalyst training class in September 2009.

She pulled together a small group of us to create the curriculum and teach the 3-day training session to the first

group of Catalyst participants. Then, she did something brilliant: she created a community network of the trained

Innovation Catalysts to support each other. This included providing an online portal where members could share

documents and report what we were doing, along with an email list to encourage direct communication. She also

held community meetups to bring the members of the network back together periodically to learn and share.

“I feared that people would find it interesting, but ultimately not make any real change. Thankfully I was wrong.”

Our original training was not a complete success. We rushed through important things, plowed through our pro-

cesses and tools, and forced trainees to make choices about which areas they would get more hands-on training

from. I’d spent many years creating innovation and user experience training at Intuit, and feared that the result of

this training would be much the same as my previous efforts – people would find it interesting, but ultimately not

make any real change. Thankfully I was wrong. It was that employee network that made all the difference. By

joining the network upon completion of the initial training, participants were returning to a work environment that

included a supportive network of other employees who had shared experiences with them.

The vision of the Innovation Catalyst Community is D4D in the DNA. (D4D = Design for Delight. It is our term for

how we use Design Thinking to innovate). This vision makes the mission clear to everyone joining the Innovation

Catalysts: Build Design for Delight Capabilities across Intuit. No specific “how” is dictated, although there are

many tools and resources that are available. As long as Innovation Catalysts are building these capabilities in the

company, we’re on track.

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Innovation Networks in Action–A Case Study

“Innovation Catalysts use D4D tools everyday, often without even being conscious of it.”

Today, there are over 180 active Innovation Catalysts who are passionate and highly engaged. They share best

practices, interesting articles, ask each other questions, jump in to help one another, and share their stories.

They communicate using email, in-person meetups, and a thriving closed Facebook group. Most of the activ-

ity happens organically within the network. Towards our vision of D4D in the DNA, most Innovation Catalysts

use D4D tools in their everyday work, often without even being conscious of it. In addition, D4D is being used

in every Business Unit, in nearly every group at the company, mostly without the help of Innovation Catalysts

anymore. The Innovation Catalyst Community thrives and continues to train, inspire and provoke teams to go

beyond incremental and obvious to delight customers.

We do still nurture and encourage the Catalyst network. Without this, the inertia of everyday work might dis-

solve the impact we have on the company. Current ways we provide support include:

• We connect Innovation Catalysts with people in the company who have challenges they’d

like help with

• We collect stories from the Innovation Catalysts and the people they’ve helped

• We coach and mentor individual members in the network

• We have a monthly newsletter with stories, news, best practices and upcoming events

• We hold periodic training sessions and meetups

• We have an annual all-hands event where we celebrate wins from the prior year, roll out

a strategy for the new year, and build new skills that will be needed to deliver on

that strategy

• We help the Innovation Catalysts get the materials and resources they need when they

are helping others with workshops, training sessions, and innovation jams

• We cascade leadership priorities to the network and help them understand how to align

their work as Innovation Catalysts to the priorities

• We raise awareness of the outcomes of the Innovation Catalysts efforts – including

connecting them with other elements in our Innovation Ecosystem

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The current Innovation Catalyst network effect is in full motion. We train Innovation Catalysts and then get

them involved in helping others, which gets more people learning the skills and approaches we want them

to use, encouraging more people to join the network. We currently have a waiting list of employees want-

ing to join the network. The impact of this flywheel is that we end up with more innovators and leaders, more

innovative products, and a more innovative corporate culture. It’s a virtuous cycle, and the basis is the action

of individual network members.

“It is insufficient to create training sessions that stand alone.”

From our experience, I can definitely say that it is insufficient for a company to just talk about innovation. It

is insufficient to create training sessions that stand alone. It is critical to create mechanisms for reinforcing

innovation learnings over time, and supporting the employees in their efforts to evolve their skills. One of the

most powerful ways to do this is to create networks focused not only on the innovations themselves, but the

passion, skills and capabilities of each other.

References

• Castleman, W. (November 4, 2013). How to Create a Successful Innovation Catalyst

Program. Intuit Network. Available from

http://network.intuit.com/2013/11/04/successful-innovation-programs

• Martin, R. (June 2011) The Innovation Catalysts. Harvard Business Review.

• The World’s Most Innovative Companies. Forbes. Available from

http://www.forbes.com/innovative-companies/list, [August 2013]

• Thomas, O. (February 8, 2013). Inside The Most Successful Silicon Valley Company

No One Ever Talks About. Business Insider. Available from

http://www.businessinsider.com/intuit-campus-tour-2013-2

• Upbin, B. (September 24, 2012). Why Intuit Is More Innovative Than Your Company

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Innovation Networks in Action–A Case Study

Author Biography

Wendy Castleman, Innovation Catalyst Leader and Design

Thinking Strategist, Intuit

Wendy leads the Innovation Catalyst Community at Intuit. She spends her

time training and supporting this 200-person community using design-thinking

so they can inspire others to innovate. Wendy has a PhD in Cognitive and

Perceptual Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin, and has 20

years of experience in Experience Design and Design Thinking. Prior to work-

ing at Intuit, she worked at Remedy, Motorola, Philips and Lucent. Outside of

work, she can be found inspiring and provoking her six-year-old daughter, hiking, skiing, and wasting a great

deal of time on social media.

Email: wendy_castleman@intuit.com, Twitter: @wcastleman

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Culturevate partners with clients to help enhance and build effective Innovation Programs that drive value to the organization. Culturevate empowers companies to execute ideas and inspire a culture of innovation with:

1. Education – Train employees around innovation skills, generating the best quality ideas 2. Technology – Engage employees with a dynamic portal / intranet site for your innovation program, with rotating materials and tools3. Employee Networks – Build effective networks to scale your Innovation Program’s reach and impact

Learn more at www.culturevateinc.com