Description

Many organizations have Innovation as a core value. However, evolving from a task-focused organization, dealing with the now, and focusing on the urgent will never become innovative. Instead, innovation requires intentionally changing their strategic planning, thinking, and problem-solving skills.

This engagement is designed to help organizations learn what Innovation is and how to become innovators and fulfill the cultural value of being Innovative; to transform the organization from “business as usual” to having Innovation as a core competency.

Who should attend?

An organization with Innovation as a core value. The team should include the leader team. They must embrace that innovation is vital to sustain and thrive.

Here is the Innovation Journey

Phase 1 – Learning to think like an innovator – two-week virtual exercise.

In this phase, the leadership team will learn the following:

1. How to “think as if there were no box.”
2. This exercise is designed to train leaders to become innovators.
3. Daily, Monday-Friday, before 9 AM, each participant sends Rich Jones three new ideas.
4. Rich Jones will aggregate these ideas for discussion and debate during Phase 2.

Phase 2 – Beginning Innovation Journey as a Strategic Imperative – Onsite workshop – two days.

In this phase, the agenda will include:

1. Agree on a definition for innovation in banking.
2. Discuss the latest innovation trends in banking.
3. Learn how to lead change management and how to overcome resistance.
4. Agree on the purpose of true Innovation.
5. Identify the benefits of becoming a credit union known for innovation.
6. Learn steps in nurturing a culture of innovation.
7. Identify leadership styles that promote innovation.
8. Discuss the role of leaders in creating a culture of innovation.
9. Introduce Design Thinking Principles for solving member problems.
10. Discuss the importance of diverse teams in fostering innovation.
11. Discuss the norms and protocols for cross-silo and cross-functional projects.
12. Establish the credit union’s risk tolerance.
13. Establish a risk matrix to evaluate the risk profile of a project.
14. Identify how to measure, monitor, and report on Innovation.

Phase 3 – Building a Cadence of Innovation – One 50-minute Zoom meeting each month with a 3-hour quarterly meeting onsite.

In this phase, the leadership will be reporting on their innovation journey. The following steps will be reported on:

1. Efforts to foster a culture of Innovation in their business unit.
2. Initiatives designed to encourage cross-functional collaboration.
3. Progress in building a research and development mindset.
4. Reviewing the building of vendor/FinTech relationships.
5. Reviewing any recently completed risk matrices for pending projects.
6. Reviewing the Innovation metrics.

Phase 4 – Annual review of the progress of the Innovation Journey – 3 hours onsite.

In this meeting, the leadership team will:

1. Report on any innovation started in each area.
   1. Report on the progress of each implementation/project.
   2. Report on the risks and rewards of a successful implementation
   3. Report on the accuracy of the risk matrix associated with each Innovation.
2. Report on any innovations completed in their area.
   1. The actual organizational impact of the Innovation
   2. The metrics used to evaluate the Innovation (balance attained, improved engagement, member impact, improved processes, etc.)
   3. Identify any innovations that are disappointing and why.
   4. Identify any innovation challenges and determine the next steps.
   5. Review all deployed innovations relative to the original risk matrix.

All reasonable travel will be billed as incurred.