We’ve been fortunate to work with several of our long-term clients in ways that impact more than just IT—helping to jumpstart a project that’s already in progress, or stimulate fresh, forward-thinking ideas dormant within a team. Today, we’re launching the Innovation Workshop.
The Innovation Workshop is a process we developed to help our clients choose innovative solutions to their business problems, and provide them a way to unlock their team’s creative ideas.
Encouraging Innovation
The workshop was conceived when we found that some of our customers were asking for a certain type of help—not so much IT support, but a fresh approach to their needs and challenge areas. They shared a need for things like:
- A process that leads to ideas that solve specific challenges
- A way to tap into perspectives from peers and other internal innovators
- Unified team vision that reduces fear of change
The goal of the workshop isn’t just to help your projects get off the ground, though—it’s to help to dispel a fear of change and new technology, and turn it into a strategy for making your team happier and more productive.
“Everyone felt like they were heard and came away from the process feeling better having done it. It really increased the teamwork throughout the organization and I don’t know that they always felt comfortable speaking up, but the process helped them feel that way.” —Deanna Rothe, Controller, Treystar
What’s in the workshop?
The workshop is broken up into stages. First, we identify a group of team members to be part of the process, and identify the goal that you want to work toward—the idea is to pick up on voices and ideas for improvement that might otherwise get overlooked.
“We could talk pretty freely about what the concerns were, what the realities and scope of the project were, and whiteboarded those and making sure everyone in the group was playing a role, and there weren’t outliers when we went through the process.” —Mike Oswald, VP of Food, Beverage, and Entertainment at Greenleaf Hospitality Group
All the pain points, solutions, and opportunities are collected, and put to a free-market vote. We want to be sure no opinion is left out, so that you can make the best choice for your organization.
“We exposed the pleasure and pain points, and how we needed to work through them. We got people to question the processes they’re used to, and validated their concerns… the good concerns that were going to give us a return on our investment and move us to the next level.” —Tanya Raab, President, United Kennel Club
After the votes are collected, your solutions are packaged and presented in a way that your leadership team can act on them immediately.
“Being that innovative partner, being that fresh perspective in our business and not focusing on technology but on business—how can we make our business better—that’s really rewarding.” —Mike Cross, CIO, Greenleaf Hospitality Group
If this sounds like it could fit your team’s needs, we’d love to hear from you! Learn more about the innovation workshop and get in touch with us.
