“Taking the work of Evans and Ron and The Innovator’s Advantage book and putting it into a course inside of an organization like this,” Dale Dixon, Chief Innovation Officer, said, “and going this deep with innovation with a group of people, creating a group of innovation champions—it really changed the way we operate as an organization.”
Last month, we launched a second Innovation Academy with Better Business Bureau Great West + Pacific. This group of 24 engaged leaders was possibly more excited than the company’s first cohort. This is due to the BBB’s overarching commitment to innovation—in all aspects of its business. And when innovation permeates your culture, people are guaranteed to get excited about innovation training.
The BBB’s first Academy graduated in 2020, after a year of training and creating projects—and it transformed the way that they think about and perform their roles. So much so that Dale credited the organization’s mindset of innovation to their success in quickly pivoting in March 2020 when the World Health Organization declared COVID- 19 a global pandemic. The Monday following that announcement, every employee was working from home. It’s this mindset that the organization wants to foster in all employees with a second Academy.
“There’s so much you will be learning in the next three hours,” Sam Fife, Director of Innovation, said during Session 1. “This is such a useful set of tools to help change the way that you’re thinking about the problems that you face in life, that you face professionally, and the things that you’re trying to solve for your team. The Innovation Framework helps me know why I’m struggling at a certain point because [I know] it’s not a phase that I love, or that I’m comfortable in, or I’m using the wrong tools for the phase of innovation that I’m at right now. So, you’re getting the context and the framework to help guide yourself and your teams through the process of change, which is really what innovation is.”
This second cohort was undaunted and ready to embrace the challenge.
The first meeting was all about introductions—of the teams and coaches as well as the objectives of the Academy and the principles of innovation. Since this cohort couldn’t meet in person due to the pandemic, they made the most of the virtual space.
Questions, inspirational quotes, and tidbits learned filled the chat box during the 3-hour session as they used F.O.R.M. (family, occupation, recreation, mission) to introduce themselves from their homes in Colorado, Idaho, Washington, and Hawaii—and to shout out to their colleagues. Most participants agreed on a love for the outdoors, their families, and their missions to be life-long learners.
Participants also came from all levels of experience and time with BBB GW+P, from one or two years to almost two decades, and from departments throughout the organization such as HR, Customer Care, Business Engagement, Marketing Solutions,
and Standards Review.
That’s the goal, though—to bring people from different branches, departments, experience levels, and innovation stages to share and create an innovation culture. Colleague recommendations and personal applications also helped the coaches and executives choose the 24 people who would be participating in this second Academy.
In turn, these participants will be ambassadors of innovation, sharing what they learn throughout the year and involving their teams outside of Academy in a variety of innovation projects. This is their homework task from Session 1—to reflect on what
they learned and spread the word on innovation. They will also meet with coaches Dr. Evans Baiya, Ron Price, and Tanja Yardley to discuss questions from the first session before diving even further into the fundamentals of innovation in Session 2.
“At the end of the day, innovation is about change,” Dr. Evans Baiya said. “And change is not easy. For some of us, we love change, we chase it. For some of us, it’s traumatizing. But change is not easy.”
To read more about the BBB Greater West + Pacific Innovation Academy 2021, click here. And if you want to learn more about how your organization could benefit from hosting an Academy, click here.
